{"id":9168,"date":"2023-02-07T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspaperhistory.com\/?p=9168"},"modified":"2023-02-07T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T06:00:00","slug":"my-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/my-son\/","title":{"rendered":"My Son!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>From <a href=\"https:\/\/chroniclingamerica.loc.gov\/lccn\/sn85038485\/1915-02-07\/ed-1\/seq-27\/\">The Birmingham Age Herald, February 7, 1915<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, sir, I know; and your words are kind, an\u2019 I tell you, sir, I\u2019ve tried<br\/>To think we can find the things we\u2019ve lost, when we get to the other side.<br\/>I\u2019d give all I\u2019ve got, sir, to know \u2019twas true, but I can\u2019t, I just can\u2019t see<br\/>How some of those lost, those dear lost things\u2019ll ever come back to me.<br\/>I shall see her there; I know she stands right close to the pearly gate,<br\/>Waitin\u2019; and soon I too\u2019ll be there; she won\u2019t have long to wait,<br\/>But when she asks for the boy\u2014our boy\u2014\u2018at she left when she went away\u2014<br\/>Asks all those questions a mother will\u2014Oh, what am I going to say?<br\/>Well, as I know he\u2019s been dead this many and many a year,<br\/>Do you think I\u2019d dare to ask up there, \u201cWhat! haven\u2019t you seen him here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>God gives men power for good or ill that ain\u2019t for this world alone;<br\/>They can lift a soul to the gates up there in the light of the great white throne,<br\/>Or sink it low as they sunk my boy\u2014such beautiful eyes he had\u2014<br\/>Brown like his mother\u2019s\u2014you\u2019d never have thought such eyes could have turned out so bad.<br\/>An\u2019 he wern\u2019t bad either, but true and good, but\u2014perhaps you know the rest\u2014<br\/>There was only one for to bring him up, and I tried to do my best;<br\/>But the world, an\u2019 the flesh, an\u2019 the drink are strong an\u2019 some men\u2019s hearts are stone,<br\/>An\u2019 I tell you it seemed sometimes as if I was fightin\u2019 \u2018em all alone.<br\/>For them as\u2019ll lift their fellowmen there\u2019s waitin\u2019 a starry crown,<br\/>But honor and power and wealth is got by them as\u2019ll pull \u2018em down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Most men they hope for the crown sometime, but they want it the shortest way,<br\/>An\u2019 they do their best an\u2019 their hardest work for a different sort o\u2019 pay.<br\/>So, the world spins on at its rattlin\u2019 gait as hard as ever she can,<br\/>An\u2019 it don\u2019t much matter that boys are lost if they belong to some other man.<br\/>One night\u2014dead drunk\u2014they brought him home\u2014my boy\u2014an\u2019 I laid him there,<br\/>The blood of a street fight on his face, an\u2019 the gutter mud in his hair.<br\/>He never knew me nor spoke again, drunk an\u2019 asleep he died,<br\/>An\u2019 I prayed that his mother\u2019d never know how we laid him by her side.<br\/>Yes, the golden streets an\u2019 the jasper walls\u2014I\u2019ve read of \u2018em all\u2014but then<br\/>Do you believe, sir, that over there I shall find my boy again?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From The Birmingham Age Herald, February 7, 1915. Yes, sir, I know; and your words are kind, an\u2019 I tell you, sir, I\u2019ve triedTo think we can find the things we\u2019ve lost, when we get to the other side.I\u2019d give all I\u2019ve got, sir, to know \u2019twas true, but I can\u2019t, I just can\u2019t seeHow [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newspapers","category-the-birmingham-age-herald"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desperaudio.com\/newspaperpoetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}