Mystery - The Wooden Box Poem by Paul Warren

They lined up after being on the train
For four days in the cold and constant rain
Until it was taken to the camp and it stopped
The German Army was efficient as it chopped
The Jewish people of Europe in the final solution
To rid Europe of what the Nazi's thought as pollution

She was tired and wanted to just rest her head
And was shuffled along with the others ahead
In her one suitcase she clutched to her side
Was the one thing that was her grandmother's pride
An ancient carved wooden box the family tasked to keep
They had to lock the box away and protect it complete

The soldier told them to pile their cases together in a mound
That they would collect them after being taken around
To the barracks where they would be quartered to work
But they were taken to the gas and killed in Nazi's perk
So she was lost and her family's sacred duty ended that day
And so the danger increased for those around the box in it's way

The cases were loaded by the workers onto the trolleys as ordered
And were sent to the work sheds with the case taken to be sorted
The case was opened by a worker and the box was placed on the table
One of the guards noticed the box with other things as a display enabled
He picked it up and turned it around in his hands in an admiration made
And walked to his office and placed it for safe keeping for the right grade

It waited in silence in the office cupboard gathering dust whilst the war went on
Until one day the guard's brother was taken into the SS in ceremony and song
He needed a present for one who will be taken to battle for the Fuhrer's Army
And looking around he remembered the wooden box that would be worthy
So he went to the cupboard and pulled it out dusting it off in consideration
Deciding this would be the one thing he could give in expectation and admiration

For his brother was a true aryan who followed the Nazi Doctrine in his plan
And had been on the Russian Front and had an Iron Cross with swords quite grand
But he had been wounded in these battles and lost an arm so was going to Normandy
To face the United Nations forces in the Second Front in Rommel's Atlantic Wall Army
And it was 1944 and the last gathering of his family in a bombed out Berlin
In Total War you had to outlast the enemy and it will give you victory in the end

After the dinner had been set and eaten the family gathered around the table
And he presented the box to his brother with due fanfare in best wishes to enable
Him to return to the family after the final battle as a hero to live as the Master Race
The warrior thanked him inspecting the box and looked upon his family with grace
He packed his things and went on the train to the Atlantic Wall German defences
And he waited in his tank as the days counted down until the invasion was rendered

On the 6th of June 1944 the biggest invasion the world ever saw hit the beaches
And the Thunderbolt fighter bombers roamed over the country side reaches
When the warrior was caught in the open and his life was lost when his tank exploded
Rommel was in Germany at that time visiting his wife for a birthday celebrated
He returned in a hurry Normandy but the damage was done for their defence
And as hard as was tried they were on the defensive against the Allied offence

An SS officer was going through the dead warrior's things and came across the box
It was too good and he put it aside and sending the rest back in the families lot
He wanted to gain favour with Rommel and so he presented the box to him to gloat
And when in the bedroom alone Rommel opened it and saw their was only a note
The note said, 'You will not prevail, the die for you is caste! ' and he closed it
He left the house and a Thunderbolt shot him up and he went to hospital very sick

Rommel was in hospital on 20th July 1944 when the Hitler Murder plot occurred
But he was in the plot had seen that the War was lost for them and they were spurned
During the trials of the plotters, Rommel was found out by the Gestapo investigation
On 14th October 1944 they came for him and he was forced to take poison in the end
Rommel's family was saved but his possessions were forfeited to the SS men
And the box were given up to desperate men who wanted to gain favour again

It was given to Himmler who believed in the supernatural with its reliance on trinkets
He thought the box held power giving it to Hitler as the Nazis would in the end expect
The box was opened in display and the Nazis didn't win a battle from that day forward
The words on the note have transpired and the end of the War was defeat toward
In the confusion of the end of their days the box disappeared into the mists of time
Waiting to surface again for the unwitting or held safe away with knowing minds.

© Paul Warren Poetry