The Leader Story Poem by Paul Warren

He trudged through the mud
Taking messages through the war's crud
He now was a trusted German soldier
Once a failed Austrian artist before the world became colder

A barrage started to tear up the ground
With death and destruction flying all around
Until he came to a lull in the artillery
Jumping in a shell hole for his safety

There were others in the hole sheltering
And he wondered what the day would bring
There was time now to look around
He noticed each soldier was just staring down

There was blood from shrapnel wounds
On each of the soldiers faces so festooned
And it surprised him when one spoke
It was a nightmare from which he never woke

The soldier started speaking with a smile
Saying don't worry you will survive these trials
And the sky darkened with his call
You will lead Germany one and all

In a bolt of lightening the soldier disappeared
And he thought about being told not to fear
He made his way back delivering the message
Then sitting by himself in the trench line passage

A friend called him over for his meal share And an explosion ripped his last place there
So he knew then that he was the chosen one
Making a pact that he would not be undone

The war ended and Germany lost
And they started to count the cost
He thought that they had been stabbed in the back
Building a party that would not be a hack

So he raised the Nazi Party and became its leader
And once in a while he saw the messenger again to remember
What was promised that day in the Great War
Would come to pass for him and more

He had a hate that boiled up from the inside
And promised he would make the Jews pay as a matter of pride
So he set up Concentration Camps straight away
Making history as murderers for which in the end some would pay

The hated Treaty was trashed as a fallacy
And Germany's armed forces were built for war so greedily
Making war against the world was something to be done
But he rushed into it and it became undone

Poland was the first nation to feel his wrath
Drawing France and Britain into the warriors path
France fell with Britain and the Commonwealth hunkered down
They were alone until the Japanese attacked America on Pearl Harbour's grounds

So the world was broiled in a World War
When he attacked to Russians to even the score
There were six years with the world's tears
Being overseen by him as the Germans were taught fear

Once and a while he saw the messenger smiling all the time
Urging him on and ensuring death and he'll were all the world would find

Until one's day in a Berlin bunker it was the Leader alone
With the messenger standing over him a bullet saw that he was gone

The messenger finished counting souls in a hellish list
As he last Nazi met the gallows in the final twist
His dark master would be pleased in this fatal story
Knowing in war and its aftermath there is just death and no glory.

© Paul Warren Poetry