I wanted to post to let you know of a brief hiatus
from the blog - I'm heading to Durban, Warner Beach, and Lesotho next week
for the fall break. Check back after next week for a new blog post about the
trip!
"If
the Child is Safe" by Marian Wright Edelman
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,
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 bead, 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,
We pray for
children who 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.
Please offer
your hands to them so that no child is left behind because we do not act.
*Given to me the last day of Teach for America training, powerful!
No comments:
Post a Comment