The embers glowed softly, and in their dim
light,
I gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
My daughter
beside me, angelic in rest.
Outside the snow fell, a blanket of
white,
Transforming the yard to a winter
delight.
The sparkling
lights in the tree I believe,
Completed the magic that was
Christmas Eve.
My eyelids were heavy, my breathing was
deep,
Secure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
In
perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
So I slumbered, perhaps
I started to dream.
The sound wasn't
loud, and it wasn't too near,
But I opened my eyes when it
tickled my ear..
Perhaps just a cough, I didn't quite know, Then
the
sure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
My soul
gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
And I crept to the door just
to see who was near.
Standing out in
the cold and the dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face
weary and tight.
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years
old,
Perhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
Alone
in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
Standing watch over me, and
my wife and my child.
"What are you doing?" I asked without
fear,
"Come in this moment, it's freezing out here!
Put
down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be at
home on a cold Christmas Eve!"
For barely a moment I saw his eyes
shift,
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
To the window
that danced with a warm fire's light
Then he sighed and he said
"Its really all right,
I'm out here by choice. I'm here every
night."
"It's my duty to stand at the front of the
line,
That separates you from the darkest of
times.
No one had to ask or beg or implore me,
I'm proud
to stand here like my fathers before me.
My Gramps died at '
Pearl on a day in December,"
Then he sighed, "That's a Christmas
'Gram always remembers."
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of
' Nam ',
And now it is my turn and so, here I am.
I've not seen my
own son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures, he's
sure got her smile.
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from
his bag,
The red, white, and blue.... an American
flag.
I can live through the cold and the being
alone,
Away from my family, my house and my
home.
I can stand at
my post through the rain and the sleet,
I can sleep in a foxhole
with little to eat.
I can carry the weight of killing
another,
Or lay down my life with my sister and
brother..
Who stand at the front against any and all,
To
ensure for all time that this flag will not
fall.."
" So go
back inside," he said, "harbor no fright,
Your family is waiting
and I'll be all right."
"But isn't there something I can do, at
the least,
"Give you money," I asked, "or prepare you a
feast?
It seems all too little for all that you've done,
For being away from your wife and your
son."
Then his eye
welled a tear that held no regret,
"Just tell us you love us, and
never forget.
To fight for our rights back at home while we're
gone,
To stand your own watch, no matter how long.
For
when we come home, either standing or dead,
To know you remember
we fought and we bled.
Is payment enough, and with that we will
trust,
That we mattered to you as you mattered to
us."
PLEASE, would you do me the kind favor of sending this to
as many
people as you can? Christmas will be coming soon and
some credit is due to our
U.S service men and women for our being
able to celebrate these
festivities. Let's try in this small way
to pay a tiny bit of what we owe. Make people
stop and think of
our heroes, living and dead, who sacrificed themselves for
us.