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.