We pray for the Children
who sneak Popsicle's 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 where we wouldn'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 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, 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, who 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.
We pray for children who want to be carried and for those who must, who 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.
In Memory of........ Natalie Brooks, student age 12 Paige Ann Herring, student age
12 Stephanie Johnson, student age 12 Brittany R. Varner, student age 11 Shannon
Wright, Teacher age 32
This is in memory of the children and teacher killed in the shooting on Tuesday, March 24, 1998 in Jonesboro, Arkansas.
Designed by Ken Kuri 1998
A Proud Member of
the One & Only Associate Network