[Loch-Ruadh] Just wanted to share, what with the holydays just around the corner

[CL Nurmi]

                      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."
>
>     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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