bubbakat
Captain
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2002
- Messages
- 3,110
I had no Christmas spirit when I breathed a weary sigh,<br />And looked across the table where the bills were piled too high.<br /><br />The laundry wasn't finished and the car I had to fix,<br />My stocks were down another point, my football team lost by six.<br /><br />And with only minutes till my son got home from school,<br />I gave up the drudgery and grabbed a wooden stool.<br /><br />The burdens that I carried were about all I could take,<br />And so I flipped the TV on to catch a little break.<br /><br />I came upon a desert scene in shades of tan and rust, <br />No snowflakes hung upon the wind, just clouds of swirling dust.<br /><br />And where the reindeer should have stood before a laiden sleigh,<br />Eight Hummers ran in a column right behind a M1A.<br /><br />A group of boys walked past the tank, not one was past his teens,<br />Their eyes were hard as polished flint, their faces drawn and lean.<br /><br />They walked the street in armor with their rifles shouldered tight,<br />Their dearest wish for Christmas, just to have a silent night.<br /><br />Other soldiers gathered, hunkered down against the wind,<br />To share a scrap of mail and dreams of going home again.<br /><br />There wasn't much at all to put their lonely heart at ease,<br />They had no Christmas turkey, just a pack of MRE's.<br /><br />They didn't have a garland or a stocking I could see,<br />They didn't need an ornament--they lacked a Christmas tree.<br /><br />They didn't have a present even though it was tradition,<br />The only boxes I could see were labeled "ammunition."<br /><br />I felt a little tug and found my son now by my side,<br />He asked me what it was I feared, and why it was, I cried.<br /><br />I swept him up into my arms and held him oh so near,<br />And kissed him on the forehead as I whispered in his ear.<br /><br />There's nothing wrong my little son, for safe we sleep tonight,<br />Our heroes stand on foreign land to give us all the right.<br /><br />To worry on the things in life that mean nothing at all,<br />Instead of wondering if we will be the next one to fall.<br /><br />He looked at me, as children do, and said it's always right, <br />To thank the ones who help us and perhaps that we should write.<br /><br />And so we pushed aside the bills and sat to draft a note,<br />To thank the many far from home, and this is what we wrote:<br /><br />"God bless you all and keep you safe, and speed your way back home.<br />Remember that we love you so, and that you are not alone.<br />The gift you give you share with all, a present every day,<br />You give the gift of liberty...and that we can't repay."<br /><br />So God bless all our heroes standing watch out there today,<br />From all of us that they make safe here in the good old USA.
. Wonderful story..................Heinz