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 light 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 dark of the night
A lone figure stood
his face weary and tight.
A soldier
I puzzled
some twenty years old
Perhaps a Marine, huddle 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 eye 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.”
~Written by Michael Marks~
Let’s not forget the Women and Men this Christmas
that fight for our Freedom and Keep us Safe.
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