An American Christmas
Their bare feet crossed the snowy fields of the camp at Valley Forge;
Dreams were of home and loved ones waiting at a hearth
Where a Yule log?s bright flames promised warmth
That now burned only in their hearts.
Little they knew of the mighty nation they were helping to forge
Was that name?Valley Forge
Coincidence or a portent of things to come?
Two tear-stained letters from home make their separate ways
One to a camp where ragged soldiers in gray
Defend what they believe is the right of each state in the Union to choose
Another to his brother in blue with different views of what this country should be.
Their heart broken mother watches holiday candles burn low
Praying not for victory but peace.
Fifty years later a young sailor from the unlikely state of Iowa
Stares across the dark waters of the Atlantic to places foreign to his farm-home existence
A troop laden ship carries him to battle in such strange sounding places as
Chateau Thierry and the Ardennes Forest.
The Christmas snow and a white cross soon mark the spot near where he died;
He had set out to make the world safe for democracy.
Twenty-five years and far away where East meets West, a littered shore at Tarawa
Begins a bloody island-hopping path for young marines
Who reclaim dot after dot on a huge Pacific map,
Storming sandy beaches under murderous enemy fire.
From fox-holes emerge countless tiny air-mail letters:
?I?ll be home for Christmas if only in my dreams.?
Helicopters join the battle in Korea and much later one balmy Christmas eve,
These ?jolly green giants? circle the base at Udorn in Southeast Asia
To play Christmas carols for the homesick pilots
Whose only Christmas tree is not pine but palm.
Still they have decorated it with ornaments to carry on the traditions
And cassettes not letters go home to families that wait in bewildered hope.
The names change; the tradition doesn?t?Valley Forge, Tarawa, Udorn, Kosovo
Tyranny, Fascism, Nazism, Terrorism . . .
The American Christmas spent far from home but wrapped in the trimmings
Of courage, sacrifice, and belief in the principles of freedom.
Nancy Roell