The enbers 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 teh yard to a winter delight.
The sparkling lights in the tree I beleive,
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 crpt to the door just to see who was near.
Standing out in teh cold dark of the night,
A lone figure stood, his face weary adn tight.
I serviceman, I puzzled, some twenty years old,
all dressed in cammies, hudled here in the cold.
Alone in the dark, he looked up and smiled,
standing watch over me, 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 teh snow blown in drifts...
To the window that dance with a warm fire' light.
Then sighed and he said "It's really alright.
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 teh 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 teh junbles of 'Nam
and now it's 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 - The American Flag.
"I can live through teh cold and the being alone,
away from my family, my house and my home.
I can stand at my post through teh rain and teh 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 fest?
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.
Thanks for all you've done.
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