{"id":705,"date":"2019-08-17T20:56:27","date_gmt":"2019-08-17T20:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/?p=705"},"modified":"2019-09-02T01:33:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T01:33:58","slug":"alyssa-herron-poetsfortherevolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/2019\/08\/17\/alyssa-herron-poetsfortherevolution\/","title":{"rendered":"Afraid | by Alyssa Herron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>image:  Alyssa Herron<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-regular-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>by Alyssa Herron<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-preformatted\">I was afraid he'd stop breathing&nbsp;\nDuring his impossible naps&nbsp;\nI was afraid he'd fall and bleed&nbsp;\nWhen he started walking too soon&nbsp;\nI was afraid his own cells&nbsp;\nWouldn't stop attacking his body&nbsp;\nI look at him now&nbsp;\nAnd see&nbsp;\nThis beautiful, peaceful, happy&nbsp;\nWhite son&nbsp;\nBarely beyond a decade&nbsp;\nFull of joy&nbsp;\nBut sometimes,&nbsp;\nI look at his crumpled face&nbsp;\nAnd see&nbsp;\nhis anger&nbsp;\nWill someone be afraid of him someday?&nbsp;\nI've been hurt by white men&nbsp;\nDeath&nbsp;\nDivorce&nbsp;\nDesertion&nbsp;\nDenial&nbsp;\nNever with such devastation&nbsp;\nWill my son&nbsp;\nWho looks like killers&nbsp;\nBe someone who hurts?&nbsp;\nHow do I stop?&nbsp;\nWhat do I say?&nbsp;\nHow can I discipline?&nbsp;\nWhen step away?&nbsp;\nWill I be afraid of him?&nbsp;\nThe boy I loved the&nbsp;\nMoment he formed&nbsp;\nBefore any of him&nbsp;\nFormed&nbsp;\nAnd then we formed him&nbsp;\nOr tried&nbsp;\nWhat if&nbsp;\nI'm afraid&nbsp;\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><em>author&#8217;s note: <strong>inspiration <\/strong>for this piece, &#8220;Raising a son who looks like our killers&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><em>Alyssa Herron<\/em><\/strong><em> is a writer, actor, and a scared mother.  This piece, and additional words and images lie at <\/em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.darkyarnproductions.com\"><em>www.darkyarnproductions.com<\/em><\/a><em>.  You can find on<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DarK_YarN\"><em> tw @dark_yarn.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#poetsoftherevolution<br \/>\nAlyssa Herron<\/p>\n<p>image:  Alyssa Herron<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":825,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[119,120,122,123,124,121,125],"class_list":["post-705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-weekly-feature","tag-afraid","tag-alyssa-herron","tag-black","tag-boys","tag-gun","tag-raising","tag-violence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/afraid-1.jpg?fit=676%2C901&ssl=1","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=705"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1066,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/705\/revisions\/1066"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lineriderpress.com\/headlinepoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}