Different Kind of Christmas Poem. -Long-

ButterflyPrincess · Post by **ButterflyPrincess** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:24 pm

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

Odie · Post by **Odie** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:31 pm

beautiful, just beautiful, and so sad.:-1

CARLA · Post by **CARLA** » Sun Dec 07, 2008 7:35 pm

Exceptional and very moving. :-1

brucearnold · Post by **brucearnold** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:05 pm

Dear Sheeple,

This poem was NOT written by "LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN", and no soldier ever asked that it be plastered all over the Internet by a bunch of slacktivist saps:

snopes[dot]com/holidays/christmas/glurge/different.asp

Furthermore, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are NOT "sacrificing themselves for us". They are being slaughtered by our Wall Street banksters, Big Oil gangsters, and Military-Industrial war-mongers solely for the sake of PROFITS:

youtube[dot]com/watch?v=9-dGHwe6COM

ldrlongdistancerider[dot]com/bikers_rights_motorcycle/rightsriders0166.php

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SHOW OUR TROOPS YOU CARE? DEMAND THEY BE BROUGHT HOME NOW!

Bruce Arnold

(info removed by the big brother type moderator)

abbey · Post by **abbey** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:33 pm

erm.......Welcome to FG! :-3

FYI No-one claimed it was written by LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 1:39 pm

brucearnold;1274882 wrote: Dear Sheeple,

This poem was NOT written by "LCDR Jeff Giles, SC, USN", and no soldier ever asked that it be plastered all over the Internet by a bunch of slacktivist saps:

snopes[dot]com/holidays/christmas/glurge/different.asp

Furthermore, our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are NOT "sacrificing themselves for us". They are being slaughtered by our Wall Street banksters, Big Oil gangsters, and Military-Industrial war-mongers solely for the sake of PROFITS:

youtube[dot]com/watch?v=9-dGHwe6COM

ldrlongdistancerider[dot]com/bikers_rights_motorcycle/rightsriders0166.php

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SHOW OUR TROOPS YOU CARE? DEMAND THEY BE BROUGHT HOME NOW!

Bruce Arnold

Thank you for your input .....I was quite enjoying that poem until it got all patriachal. Would have been an exeptional poem if not for that.

brucearnold · Post by **brucearnold** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 3:39 pm

People who have no clue what words like "patriarchal" mean should avoid using them in written communications.

Even Dubya knew when to STFU...

Post by **spot** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 4:06 pm

brucearnold;1274969 wrote: People who have no clue what words like "patriarchal" mean should avoid using them in written communications.Good lord, you're going to be a bundle of laughs if you stick around, aren't you.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:52 pm

brucearnold;1274969 wrote: People who have no clue what words like "patriarchal" mean should avoid using them in written communications.

Even Dubya knew when to STFU...

Actually, patriarchal is exactly what I meant. Thank you very much !!:mad: Maybe you should see the word in the context of what was meant by it ...You're the one who brought up "big brother and censorship". Have a little think dear. BruceArnold? A man? Only thinks of cencorship as in terms of another 'man' ruling over him? Hmmm small man syndrome me thinks ? Bikers associations? Again a patriarchal organisation censoring those within it's ranks and shutting out those who don't comply. Oh goodness me.

Oh you were thinking I mean't Patriotism etc. ....................Now who's the ********?

And you tell me to STFU? Oh you are a treasure aren't you. Lovely lovely person. Keep going hun! You are a very 'special' person.

Post by **spot** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 5:53 pm

fuzzywuzzy;1274993 wrote: Actually, patriarchal is exactly what I meant. Thank you very much !!:mad: Maybe you should see the word in the context of what was meant by it ...You're the one who brought up "big brother and censorship". Have a little think dear.

Oh you were thinking I mean't Patriotism etc. ....................Now who's the ********?

Oh come on fuzzball, everyone knows you were confusing it for parochial. Stop bluffing.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 6:04 pm

Oh bugger!! Foiled again!!

:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl:yh_rotfl

AussiePam · Post by **AussiePam** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:02 pm

Anyone fer a nice cup of tea er coffee?????

Or some kleenex?

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 8:12 pm

You got Bonox?

Isn't the saying............. Tea ? coffee? bonox?

Never figured out why someone would want to drink gravy:-2

Post by **spot** » Mon Dec 21, 2009 9:04 pm

Oh. And while the thread's active might I say the poem is sufficiently obnoxious and vile as to induce vomiting in a week-old corpse.

fuzzywuzzy · Post by **fuzzywuzzy** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 1:36 am

Week old?........ that's very specific:-2 I'm not sure they do that a week later ....I could be wrong . I realise they move and fart and stuff but vomit?

LON you want to help us out here?

Peg · Post by **Peg** » Tue Dec 22, 2009 5:46 am

spot;1275040 wrote: oh. And while the thread's active might i say the poem is sufficiently obnoxious and vile as to induce vomiting in a week-old corpse.

:-5 :-5