The Good Luck Charm

A story I read about war and good luck charms….. The Good luck charm 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 © Paul Warren Poetry