[Greg Reimer 7376]

Some things come your way that just have to be shared.Here's one of them. I thought of guys like Eddie and so many more when I found this.


The embers glowed softly,and in their dim light,
I gazed around the room and cherished the sight,
My wife was asleep,her head on my chest,
My daughter beside me,angelic in rest


Outside the snowfall,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,peerhaps I started to dream


The sound wasn't loud and it wasn't to 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,my wife and my child


"What are you doing?" I asked without fear
"Come in this moment,its freezing out here!
Put down your pack,brush the snow from your sleeve,
You should be home on a cold Christmas Eve!"


For barely a moment I saw his eye shift
Away from the cold and the snow blown in drifts
To the window that danced with a warm fires' light
Then he sighed and he said,"It's really all right


Im 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 said,"Thats a Christmas "Gram always remembers
My dad stood his watch in the jungles of 'Nam
And now its my turn and so here I am!


I've not seen my son in more than a while,
But my wife sends me pictures,he's sure got her smile
Then he bent and 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 the 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 in the least ,
Give you some money or prepare you a feast?'
It seems too little for all you have done,
For being away from your wife and your son"


Then,his eye welled a tear that had 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 trust,
that we mattered to you as you mattered to us".


"Real integrity is doing the right thing,knowing that nobody is
going to know whether you did it or not"


"Greater love has no man that he lay down his life for his friends".
Jesus Christ.