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We pray for the Children
who sneak popsicles before supper,
who erase holes in math workbooks,
who can never find their shoes.
And we pray for those
who stare at photographers from behind barbed
wire,
who can't bound down the street in a new pair of
sneakers,
who never "counted potatoes"
who are born in places where we wouldn't be caught
dead,
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 hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch
money.
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 can't find any bread to steal,
who don't have any rooms to clean up,
whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser,
whose monsters are real.
We pray for children
who spend all their allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick
at their food
who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes
under the bed
who never
get visits from the tooth fairy,
who don't 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.
And we pray for those
whose nightmares come in the daytime,
who will eat anything,
who have never seen a dentist,
who aren't spoiled by anybody,
who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children
who want to be carried and for those who must,
and for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother and . . .
for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind
enough to
offer it.
 
This poem was sent to me via
email.
Being a victim of childhood abuse I was very touched and decided to
post this prayer..
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