The Good Luck Charm Poem by Paul Warren

A story I read about war and good luck charms…..

Standing on the dock in front of the troop ship
His mother hugged him and fussed about Straightening his hat and brushing his tunic and bits
Finally stuffing a hankie in his top tunic pocket

He protested as a son was prone to
do
As it was all done in front of his mates
Finally it was last call as he followed up the gangway too
And the ship moved away to the Great War frontlines

He was a message runner for his battalion
And he carried the hankie through his Great War battles
Often dodging the machine guns all along
As he made his way through the mud and shell holes

His mother's hankie always made him think of her
Never leaving it in his pack not wanting to lose it
And as a good luck charm when bad scrapes did occur
Until one day he was caught by a machine gun blast

One of the bullets wounded his neck as the wound showed
With his life pouring out with his blood
The only thing was the hankie to stem the flow
As he held it tightly to his neck to stop the blood

The stretcher bearers found, bandaged and brought him in
With the hankie stemming the blood flow
He was taken to the Casualty Clearing Station through the din
The doctor and nurses worked on him

There was no more war because of his injuries all
So he went back to Australia taking the hankie with him
And he kept it with blood stains from the wound call
Until the Second World War was declared again

His son took it again to war in North Africa, Greece, Crete and to New Guinea to the end
The son returned home and gave the hankie back to the Anzac
Lauding its power to keep him safe in battles again
He returned home to his family and life in Australia

There was a third generation of warriors in war going back
When a grandson took the hankie along too
Vietnam was the battlefield and the hankie's powers were fact
He returned to Australia unscathed too

The hankie had good luck in store
When carried into battle as a good luck charm
For a family of warriors who needed it and more
And the family was convinced it protected them.

© Paul Warren Poetry