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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 eye 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"

"Its 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 sisters and brothers

who stand at the front against any and all,

to insure 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.

WE ALL NEED TO PRAY FOR OUR MILITARY PERSONNEL EVERY NIGHT, THEY ARE IN SOME

VERY VERY TIGHT PLACES.

Author-unknown

What a beautiful poem! It brought tears to my eyes. Thanks for sharing with us.

OH, Bama.......that's absolutely BEAUTIFUL!

Thanks for posting it!

That's beautiful. I'm so grateful they are keeping watch over our country.

It never occurred to me until I read this poem, how difficult a Christmas it was after Pearl. I never really connected the date with what must have been a very hard Christmas for those families and the country.

Thanks for posting this.

Prairie

That's a beautiful poem Bama Tom, Thanks for posting it

God Bless and Protect our Troops

Mike

OH WOW ... The was Beautiful

Thank you Bama Tom

Reading that gave me chills. Thanks for posting!

Thank you for that, Bama Tom.

TEXOKIE, you MUST see this beautiful poem, perhaps it can be posted on the Troop Prayer thread.

Good Lord! Is that ever a moving poem. There is a list of FReepers with family members serving in Iraq (and Afghanistan, I think). This poem should be pinged to each of them, although I don't have the list handy and don't know where to find it.