Disney Doll
DIS Security Matron
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2000
- Messages
- 28,882
The embers glowed softly 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.
The sparkling lights on 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. The the sure sound of footsteps out 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, my wife, and our 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 "It's 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 to 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 my Gram always remembers.
My Dad stood his watch in the jungles 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 sure has 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 form your wife and your son."
Then his eyes welled with 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".
Pray for our military personnel every night...they are in some very tight places.
My wife was asleep, her head on my chest. My daughter beside me, angelic in rest.
The sparkling lights on 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. The the sure sound of footsteps out 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, my wife, and our 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 "It's 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 to 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 my Gram always remembers.
My Dad stood his watch in the jungles 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 sure has 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 form your wife and your son."
Then his eyes welled with 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".
Pray for our military personnel every night...they are in some very tight places.
