Of The Boston Tea Party And Generals And Majors Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

Of the Boston Tea Party and Generals and Majors
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
I started another short tale in Gregory Blake Smith's The Maze at Windermere
And my eye caught a reference to Gen. Burgoyne in whose honour the hero and his people were
To have an Assembly and the man tried to dissuade this plan for in Cambridge
The Boston ladies had refused to come out and it was all for naught, the gathering;

In jest, I thought that this was because there was no tea being served in 1778
For the rigours of the American independence movement had been hit hard by
The Boston Tea Party in 1773 and since sacks and sacks of tea had been thrown into the ocean,
The ladies did not have high teas to go to for tea was being rationed;

Generals and Majors make the warring world go round and round
And in Mali, PM Justin Trudeau's peacekeeping efforts have been most certainly
Headed in an able manner by the General of the Canadian army
And this nation ridded by a Civil War and governed by a military regime,
Has the General and his soldiers to thank;

This reminds me of the UN peacekeeping efforts in the Bosnia-Herzegovina conflict
And how well they handled the crisis
And most certainly, there must have been a General, you say,
Or was it the Secretary-General of the UN, the man behind the scene;

In the movie, Sam Mendes's 1917, it is a major who gives the order
To two corporals, one of whom dies in the course of the mission to save many British soldiers,
For they are to head to their certain deaths
Which the Germans have secretly spearheaded in World War II;

I guess that despite Bob Dylan's beginning to his song,
"Damn the masters of war Build to destroy….",
There are generals and majors who save our souls, not to mention Prime Ministers and Doctors, the civilians,
And preserve the lives of the fighting soldiers;

CTV NEWS SAYS:
The Canadian Armed Forces is being put on a war footing as it prepares to be thrown into the COVID-19 crisis.
Chief of the defence staff Gen. Jonathan Vance issued the call to arms in a five-page letter to the troops on Friday, in which he ordered them to stay healthy and be ready to respond immediately if and when the military is called into action because of the pandemic.
PM Justin Trudeau is to address the nation at 11 A.M. on the 5th of April,2020
I must say that I am a little puzzled as to what the troops are going to do
But I imagine that they are going to sanitize all the surroundings
And preserve our lives;

The last time the Canadian Army was in Toronto was in Jan 1999,
When my baby boy was two months old
And the Premier of Ontario had called them
To help us with all the snow removal and clear the streets;

The Canadian Army has helped save lives
In the past for we celebrated the 100th anniversary
Of the end of World War I in 2018
And PM Justin Trudeau flew the war veterans
To Normandy Beach last summer
To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the invasion
On Normandy Beach in June 1944;

I am certain that the PM, Justin Trudeau,
Will say an extra-long prayer for all Canadians
And the Canadian Army who are to fight the pandemic
And for the people of the world
Who are battling for their past beautiful lives
And their continued existence
For if the sunshine has to envelop us with its warmth or brightness,
The silver lining in the grey cloud
That looms large on the horizon
Could turn into rainfall
For we could find a vaccine and a cure for COVID-19 virus.