In honor of children on their special day dedicated to them today, I offer
this prayer:
We pray for children who give us
sticky kisses,
who hop on rocks and chase
butterflies,
who go barefoot because their parents
cannot afford to buy them shoes,
who have shoes, but can never
find them.
And we pray for those who stare
at photographs from behind barbed wire,
who never squeaked across the floor
in new sneakers,
who never go to the circus, who live
in an X-rated world
We pray for children who bring us
fistfuls of dandelions and sing off key,
who have goldfish funerals, build
card table forts, who slurp their cereal on purpose,
who put gum in their hair, put sugar in
their milk, who spit toothpaste all over the sink,
who hug us for no reason, who bless
us each night.
And we pray for those who never get
dessert,
who watch their parents watch them
die, who have no safe blanket to drag behind,
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 those who spend all their
allowance before Tuesday,
who throw tantrums in the grocery
store and pick at their food,
who shove dirty clothes under the bed
and never rinse out the tub,
who get pennies from the tooth fairy,
who don't like to be kissed in front of their friends,
who squirm in church and scream when
you're on 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.
For those we never give up on, and
for those who don't have a chance.
For
those we smother, and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough
to offer it.
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