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<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
The embers glowed softly, and in their dim light,
\nI gazed round the room and I cherished the sight.
\nMy wife was asleep, her head on my chest,
\nMy daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
\nOutside the snow fell, a blanket of white,
\nTransforming the yard to a winter delight.
\nThe sparkling lights in the tree I believe,
\nCompleted the magic that was Christmas Eve.
\nMy eyelids were heavy, my breathing was deep,
\nSecure and surrounded by love I would sleep.
\nIn perfect contentment, or so it would seem,
\nSo I slumbered, perhaps I started to dream.<\/p>\n
The sound wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t too near,
\nBut I opened my eyes when it tickled my ear.
\nPerhaps just a cough, I didn’t quite know, Then the
\nsure sound of footsteps outside in the snow.
\nMy soul gave a tremble, I struggled to hear,
\nAnd I crept to the door just to see who was near.
\nStanding out in the cold and the dark of the night,
\nA lone figure stood, his face weary and tight.<\/p>\n
A soldier, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
\nPerhaps a Marine, huddled here in the cold.
\nAlone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
\nStanding watch over me, and my wife and my child.
\n“What are you doing?” I asked without fear,
\n“Come in this moment, it’s freezing out here!
\nPut down your pack, brush the snow from your sleeve,
\nYou should be at home on a cold Christmas Eve!”<\/p>\n
For barely a moment I saw his eyes shift,
\nAway from the cold and the snow blown in drifts..
\nTo the window that danced with a warm fire’s light
\nThen he sighed and he said “Its really all right,
\nI’m out here by choice. I’m here every night.” “It’s my duty to
\nstand at the front of the line,<\/p>\n
That separates you from the darkest of times.
\nNo one had to ask or beg or implore me,
\nI’m proud to stand here like my fathers before me.
\nMy Gramps died at ‘Pearl on a day in December,”
\nThen he sighed, “That’s a Christmas ‘Gram always remembers.”
\nMy dad stood his watch in the jungles of ‘Nam’,
\nAnd now it is my turn and so, here I am.
\nI’ve not seen my own son in more than a while,
\nBut my wife sends me pictures, he’s sure got her smile.<\/p>\n
Then he bent and he carefully pulled from his bag,
\nThe red, white, and blue… an American flag.
\nI can live through the cold and the being alone,
\nAway from my family, my house and my home.
\nI can stand at my post through the rain and the sleet,
\nI can sleep in a foxhole with little to eat.
\nI can carry the weight of killing another,
\nOr lay down my life with my sister and brother..
\nWho stand at the front against any and all,
\nTo ensure for all time that this flag will not fall.”<\/p>\n
“So go back inside,” he said, “harbor no fright,
\nYour family is waiting and I’ll be all right.”
\n“But isn’t there something I can do, at the least,
\n“Give you money,” I asked, “or prepare you a feast?
\nIt seems all too little for all that you’ve done,
\nFor being away from your wife and your son.”
\nThen his eye welled a tear that held no regret,
\n“Just tell us you love us, and never forget.
\nTo fight for our rights back at home while we’re gone,
\nTo stand your own watch, no matter how long.
\nFor when we come home, either standing or dead,
\nTo know you remember we fought and we bled.
\nIs payment enough, and with that we will trust,
\nThat we mattered to you as you mattered to us.”<\/p>\n
LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN
\n30th Naval Construction Regiment
\nOIC, Logistics Cell One
\nAl Taqqadum, Iraq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"