Monet's Dog

Monet's Dog

In rare film

now turned to video

Claude Monet paints

in his garden

at Giverny

When he leaves his canvas

we see a small dog

follow behind him

To that small dog

Monet was everything

Perhaps somewhere the name

of that little dog

is mentioned

though Monet's painting

of the little dog

is just called

"Head of the Dog"

It didn't matter

to the little dog

that Monet was Monet

It doesn't matter

to us the name

of the little dog

nor the name Monet

We just see what Monet saw

after his paintings

became more than his garden

became to him

The little dog just saw

the garden and Monet

who stood there doing something

while the little dog panted

in the heat of a summer day

Monet likely held that dog

on that quiet evening

comforted by the company

of a small dog

I want to be comforted

by a little dog

to have that little dog

be everything

that Monet's little dog

was to him

and his paintings and my poems

to mean more to my children

than they do now

to Monet

and to me

Barry G. Wick