WE PRAY FOR CHILDREN

WE PRAY FOR CHILDREN
Who sneak popsicles before supper
Who erase holes in math workbooks
Who never find their shoes

AND WE PRAY FOR THOSE
Who stare at photographs from behind barbed wire
Who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers
Who never "count potatoes"
Who never go to the circus
Who are born places we would never be caught dead in
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
Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser
Whose monsters are real

WE PRAY FOR CHILDREN
Who spend all of their allowance before Tuesday
And pick at their food
Who like ghost stories
Who shove dirty clothes under the bed and never rinse the tub
Who get visits from the Tooth Fairy
Who don't like to be kissed in from of the car pool
Who squirm in church and scream into 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 often go hungry
Who have never been to the dentist or a doctor
Who aren't loved or spoiled by anybody