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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
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