The Children

"We pray for children who sneak popsickles before supper, who erase holes in their math workbooks. (Gail remember a certain report card)

"We pray for those who can't bound down the street in a new pair of sneakers, who never "counted potatos" who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead, who never go to the circus, who live in x-rated worlds.

"We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fists full of dandelions."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 don't have any rooms to clean up, who's pictures aren't on anyones dressers, whose monsters are real.

"We pray for those children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don't like to get kisses in front of the car pool, who squirm in church or temple, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can makes us cry"And we pray for those whose nightmares comes in the day time, who will eat anything and who have never seen a dentist, who aren't spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry them selves 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 we smother, and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it." By Ina J. Hughes