A Prayer For Children

We pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak popsicles before supper, who erase holes in their math work books, who can never find their shoes. And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire. Who can't bound in the street in a new pair of sneakers, who never get to go to the circus, who live in an x-rated world. We pray for children who bring us sticky handfuls of dandelions, who sleep with the night light on, who forget to feed the goldfish, who hug us in a hurry and forget their lunch money. Who cover themselves with band-aids and slurp their soup. And we pray for those who never get dessert, who have no saftey 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 anyone's dresser, whose monsters are real. We pray for chldren 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 and never rinse the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, who squirm in church and scream during phone calls, 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 aren't 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 that never get a second chance. For those we smother... and for those that will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it.