I Hope For A Song Bird To Come Here Poem by Gayathri Seetharam

I hope for a song bird to come here
-Gayathri B. Seetharam
It's a bleak and wintry day
And the corona virus threat looms large in our lives
And I would love it if the song bird and not to mention
The thrushes amidst the poplars surprised us here in Toronto;

The song bird would sing its song of freedom
And the thrush would welcome the onset of spring
The spring with its budding green blossoms
Would speak of the release of our lives some of whose lives
Have been in invisible chains;

Freedom from threats and freedom from colonisation
Must be the topic of the day
For after all these years after I took on a new citizenship
And have enjoyed the protection of Canada
It occurred to me to make a painting of the Indian Independence Day;

It should surely be a parrot which is flying to freedom
After being a caged bird for most of its lifetime
And the parrot is Mahatma Gandhi
And he was the father of the August 15th,1947 celebration;

The Canadian Encyclopaedia says the following:
Among Canada's defining events, the Battle of Vimy Ridge in the First World War ranks high. It was a triumph — a major victory for the Allied side after a long, bloody stalemate — and a tragedy. In the four-day battle,3,598 Canadians died and another 7,004 were wounded. In the century since it ended, on 12 April 1917, it has become something else: an event bordering on myth. "In those few minutes, " said Canadian Brigadier-General A.E. Ross of the victory, "I witnessed the birth of a nation."

On April 9,2020, The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Vimy Ridge Day:
"Today, we remember the thousands of Canadians who fought and gave their lives in the Battle of Vimy Ridge.
"The capture of Vimy Ridge was more than just a military victory - it was a turning point for our country. During the battle, soldiers from all four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together for the first time. They came from coast to coast to coast - Francophones, Anglophones, new Canadians, and Indigenous peoples.

Resuming as me, Gayathri B. Seetharam, I shall end by saying that the fight of
The people of the world and us Canadians, against the attack of the COVID-19 virus,
Brings on what Justin Trudeau aptly described the Battle of Vimy Ridge to be,
A Turning point in history and if we come through it relatively unscathed
By the havoc the virus has wreaked on our lives,
It is a journey to freedom, into the continued beauty of the existence of our nation of Canada.