Messages at Christmas

There are many folks who can’t be home this Christmas. Too often a job or duty keeps families from being together. It’s not easy, but it happens.

Every year I watch the televised messages to loved ones from our military men and woman who are serving their country in far away lands. Local television stations air the video messages. One year I was moved by one message I saw and I wrote the following poem.

It is called, Away Again.

I am away this Christmas,

   but I will send my heart

to ring each bell you hear

   when distance keeps us part.

I can’t be with you now

   to sit there by the fire

and hold your hand in mine

   and fill my heart’s desire.

When you awake my love

   You’ll feel my Christmas touch.

Know it is my message -

   I love you very much.

I can’t be home this year

   to hear the season sing

nor be with you to smile

   at every little thing.

I can’t be home this Christmas

   to decorate the tree

So hang a stocking too

   from heart at hearth for me?

When morning comes at dawn,

   with every breath I take

I'll hear your sweetened laugh

   to take away my ache.

I can’t be home this Christmas,

   if only it weren’t so.

Hear my special Christmas wish -

   never again to go.