Sunday, March 15, 2009

We pray for children...

1 comment:

  1. A poem by Ina J. Hughs
    Transcribed by Wayne Kurtz

    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 shouldn’t be
    caught dead,
    who never go to the 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 money.

    We pray for those
    who never get dessert,
    who have no safe blanket to drag behind
    them,




    page two

    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 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 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
    carpool,
    who squirm in church or temple and scream
    in 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.


    page three


    We pray for children that want to be carried,
    and for those who must,
    for those we never give up on and for those
    who don’t get a second chance.

    For those we smother...and for those who will grab
    the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

    Ina J. Hughs
    from the book A Grateful Heart
    Conari Press Berkeley, California

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