Give This Child What She Needs Poem by Aldo Kraas

Tiny shoes by the front door
Name tag stitched in a secondhand coat
She's watching how the grown folks
Talk
Learning every word we quote
Homework spread on a
Wobbly table
Cartoons humming low in the
Room
She needs more than '' you'll be fine''
She needs love that fills the gloom
Give this child what she needs
Shelter
Give this child what she needs
Prayers
Give this child what she needs
Some food and water
Give this child what she needs
Good parents
Give this child what she needs
Good manners
Give this child what she needs
A smoke free home
Give this child what she needs
Peace and happiness
Give this child what she needs
To now God
Quiet hug when the grades slip
Kind hands when the tears start
To fall
Soft voice saying
You are safe''
A steady place to stand up tall
Books and bedtime stories
Blessings whispered over head
Healthy meals
A clean warm room
A future bigger than this bed
Soft choir answers each line
Let her see patience in our faces
Let her hear kindness in our tone
Let her find truth at the table
So she never feels lies coming from
The people
Let her see faith when we're hurting
Let her see hope when
Are hard
So when she asks what love
Looks like
She finds her answer in
God