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Please remember our troops--a different Christmas poem

Faster horses

Well-known member
> 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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