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Dear Everyone:
The following poem was posted to another one of my lists and I thought you
would enjoy it as we begin another year in education.

>The following poem is by Marian Edelman from her book, The
Measure of Our Success.

                        If the Child is Safe

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 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 ca'nt 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 allowances 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 arent 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.



Enjoy! :)
Barb
Barbara Johnson, Librarian
 Albright M.S. in Houston, Texas 77083
 < bjohnson@netropolis.net >
Official Net Nerd
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