A prayer for children

We pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere,
who like to be tickled,
who stump in puddles and ruin their new pants,
who sneak Popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in their math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those who stare at photographers
from behind barbed wire,
who canīt bound in the street in a new pair of sneakers,
who never go to the circus,
who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses
and fistfuls of dandelions,
who sleep with the dog and bury the goldfish,
who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money,
who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off key,
who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink,
who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those who never get dessert,
who have no safe blanket to drag behind them,
who watch their parents watch them die,
who canīt find any bread to steal,
who donīt have any rooms to clean up,
whose monsters are real.

We pray for children who spends
all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food,
who like ghosts stories,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse the tub,
who get visits from the tooth fairy,
who donīt like to be kissed in front of the carpool,
who squirm in church and scream in the phone,
whose tears we sometimes laugh at,
and whose smiles can make us cry.

We pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who arenīt spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
and who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried
and for those who must,
for those we never give up on
and for those who donīt get a second chance.
For those we smother...
and for those who will grab the hand of anybody
kind enough to offer it.
- Author unknown

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