• If you are having problems logging in please use the Contact Us in the lower right hand corner of the forum page for assistance.

A Different Christmas Poem

sw

Well-known member
This is one of those things that makes me go Why didn't I write that?
Thanks for sending it ranchwife, it's too good not to share with everyone.


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."







“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.”



by

LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN

30th Naval Construction Regiment

OIC, Logistics Cell One

Al Taqqadum, Iraq





MSgt (Ret) Brian Crostic

HQ USCENTCOM LNO

Taji Iraq
 

ranchwife

Well-known member
it brought tears to my eyes and I just knew it would have special meaning for so many out there.....especially you and hanta!!! God bless that boy of yours and all the other soldiers out there (American and Canadian) who continue to watch over all of us!!
 

katrina

Well-known member
That is just great!! I hadn't seen that one....
I had such a good time when I came and seen the sw family.......... I think of that marine on the door where I slept and think this is just like the world... Marines are watching from the door of the world... Does that make since???
 

feeder

Well-known member
Thanks sw. I too just received this poem via email. It is a great one. I just read an article on the Purple Foxes and their rescue missions for October. I believe it was in the Stars and Stripes deal. Our Marines are touching the hearts in Iraq by their deeds of goodness.
 

Latest posts

Top