This Bridge Of History Poem by Doug Gunderson

Standing on the Old North Bridge
Where those first shots were fired,
Caught up in the history
And what it has inspired.
The statue of the Minute Man
With rifle and with plow
Faces this bridge of history
As if guarding it somehow.
The marker where the British fell,
A Signal to the start of war,
Commemorates the battle;
That has come to mean much more.
Our love of independence,
Our reverence for the gun
Are enhanced from this moment.
Where this battle was won.
For if the battle never happened
Where would we be today,
How would our lives be different
And if so then in what way.
Independence would have come;
But when and in what form?
Gradual like Canada’s?
Or is India the norm?
Would we have a Parliament?
A Prime Minister in charge?
I know these are minor things,
But right now they loom large.
And the second amendment,
Would it be held so dear?
If this battle had not happened
If our guns were not so near?
The nineteenth of April
In Seventeen seventy five
Echoes throughout history
And touches so many lives.
And standing on the Old North Bridge
I can’t help feeling pride;
For that moment in our history
At this small riverside.