A
Different Christmas Poem
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.
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
30th Naval Construction Regiment
OIC,
Logistics Cell One
Al Taqqadum, Iraq