Prayer for Those Who Lose Shoes and Those Who Have None to Lose
We pray for 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 we
wouldn’t be caught dead in.
Who never saw a 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 security 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.
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 their dirty clothes under
the bed and never rinse out the tub.
Who get visits from the tooth fairy.
Who don’t like to be kissed in
front 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 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 be.
For those we never give up on
and for those who never get
a second chance.
For those we smother
and for those who will
grab the hand of anybody kind enough
to offer it.
Author Unknown
