The Seagull swoops theatrically ,
alighting onto the supporting stanchion ;
” Canada Remembers ” is affixed to
that railing where the Seagull now
stares off into the middle distance ,
perhaps at the Ferry from Dover inching
its way toward the harbour ;
calmer waters to-day unlike then ,
when they caused Canada to remember ;
” Banleda ,Bond ,Brown , Brush ,Byrne ,Cathcart ..”
twenty-six in all alphabetically tabulated ,
their five Motor Torpedo Boats numerically so ,
459 ,461 ,462 ,465 ,466 ;
We remember them now
amid all the firestorms that year
lost in the accidental fire and explosions
on Fourteenth February ,Nineteen-Forty Five
here in Ostend harbour ;
back then too a seagull swooped
theatrically alighting on the same stanchion ,
and had stared out to sea unaware
that Canada would be given cause
to remember and remember still .
As always matchless with a patriotic fervor, dissecting history with poetic precision.