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 ma ny
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