Who will protect the children...?

Little ones so fragile and small beings robbed of life
How is it you're so young yet experiencing so much strife
You're as innocent as the universe and as beautiful as the dove
Yet your parents choose to hurt you and sadden the angels above?

Your clothes are neatly hanging; your smile could warm the sky
Yet beneath the outward appearance is what others would pass by
A broken wounded childhood and a child who feels alone
Pretending everything's so perfect while terrors are at home

How many out there like you:  how many have known this fate?
Can we not try to help them; before it becomes too late?
The world is filling  up steadily with these children of the lash
Their walking wounded people whose childhood took a crash

They're around us in our neighborhoods and in the places we teach
They're reaching  for our attention but we ignore their reach
They're little ones from the wealthy and little ones from the poor
They're at our places of worship and in the grocery store.

What will we do to help them? What will we do to insure:
That they can enjoy their childhood and not suffer and endure?
We are the ones with the power and they  the ones without
Will we keep on ignoring the bruises that scream and shout?

We campaign to save the creatures and we campaign to save the trees
We strive to protect the oceans and the creatures of the seas..
Will we not protect the children who are innocent as they talk?
They grow up right before us and we are blind to how they walk?