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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."
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