Does real love scare you?
Does real love scare you?
LOVE like Rain is not on your schedule!
LOVE like death is not planned for.
LOVE is not concerned about your career path.
LOVE does not Care if you are busy
LOVE is like war it WILL bring pain.
Love can be terrifying yet exhilarating.
Walk away from it. It won't follow.
Run from it if you will, it does not chase you.
Rationalize all you want; you won't control it.
Love is an act of faith. You will not have a guarantee
Love is not clay that can be formed on the potter's wheel.
Hide in a corner trembling in fear, call 911 because love is here.
K.L. STUBBLEFIELD
The poem poses a provocative question—“Does real love scare you?”—and then unfolds its message by contrasting common expectations of love with its untamed, unpredictable nature. Here’s a breakdown of its key ideas:
Unpredictability and Lack of Control
Irregular and Unscheduled:
The poem starts by declaring that love is “not on your schedule.” This line reminds us that real love cannot be planned or confined to our routines, much like rain that appears without warning. It challenges the notion that love can be methodically engineered or anticipated.Defiance of Plans:
“LOVE like death is not planned for” reinforces that love, like the inevitability of death, comes unbidden. The poem underscores that love isn’t a product of careful planning or forethought; it simply happens, often catching us off guard.
Love’s Inherent Intensity and Risks
Unyielding Impact:
Lines such as “LOVE is like war it WILL bring pain” and “Love can be terrifying yet exhilarating” highlight the dual nature of love. While love can offer profound joy and excitement, it also carries the risk of pain and loss. This intense emotional spectrum can be both thrilling and frightening.Uncontrollability:
The advice to “Walk away from it. It won't follow. Run from it if you will, it does not chase you” speaks to love’s inherent independence. Unlike things we can command or control, love exists on its own terms. The poem suggests that running away doesn’t alter its course because love doesn’t wait for permission or pursuit—it arrives regardless of our actions.
The Element of Faith
Faith Over Certainty:
“Rationalize all you want; you won't control it. Love is an act of faith. You will not have a guarantee” confronts our need for certainty. Love requires us to trust in the unknown, stepping beyond logic and the comfort of predictable outcomes. It’s an embrace of risk, where there are no assurances—only the leap of faith.Irreversible Transformation:
Comparing love to something that isn’t “clay that can be formed on the potter's wheel” emphasizes that love isn’t malleable or subject to our will. We cannot reshape it according to our desires or plans. Its inherent nature is raw and unmodifiable, which can be both beautiful and intimidating.
The Inevitable Encounter with Love
Unavoidable Presence:
Finally, the poem concludes with a vivid image: “Hide in a corner trembling in fear, call 911 because love is here.” This hyperbolic line captures the overwhelming and sometimes alarming force of love. It suggests that love arrives with such intensity that our instinct might be to seek refuge or call for help—yet, ultimately, its arrival is inevitable.
Overall Interpretation
At its core, the poem is an invitation to reconsider our perceptions of love. It challenges us to:
Accept love’s unpredictability and intensity.
Recognize that love, much like natural phenomena or even existential inevitabilities, is beyond our full control.
Embrace the inherent risk and uncertainty of love as part of its beauty.
Understand that while love may be intimidating, it also holds the promise of profound transformation, even if it brings pain along the way.
In essence, the question “Does real love scare you?” asks us to reflect on our willingness to embrace vulnerability, uncertainty, and the powerful, uncontrollable forces that love unleashes in our lives.
1. The Fear of Real Love in a Traumatized People
“Does real love scare you?” is a cutting question for a people who have inherited centuries of abandonment, betrayal, and systemic destabilization.
For many African Americans, real love is foreign—not because it’s not desired, but because it often hasn’t been modeled or sustained generationally. Enslavement broke families. Jim Crow suppressed dignity. Mass incarceration, broken welfare structures, and exploitative media narratives have taught many to equate love with pain, manipulation, or loss.
When the poem says:
“LOVE like Rain is not on your schedule… LOVE like war it WILL bring pain,”
It echoes the truth that many African Americans have learned to associate love with instability and disappointment. The result? Guarded hearts.
2. Emotional Suppression in Black Men and Women
Love requires vulnerability—but vulnerability can feel like a death sentence when you’ve lived your life needing to be strong just to survive.
Black men are often not taught emotional literacy or safe expression. Love threatens the emotional walls built for survival.
Black women often bear the scars of having to love and lead simultaneously in the absence of protected, covenantal love.
“Run from it if you will, it does not chase you.”
This line speaks to the avoidance response deeply ingrained in those who’ve known abandonment, betrayal, and exploitation. Real love is not clingy. It’s not transactional. And that makes it scary—because many only recognize love if it feels like struggle.
3. Love as a Revolutionary Force
For African Americans, real love is not just romantic—it’s resistance.
To love as a Black man—faithfully, spiritually, protectively—is revolutionary.
To love as a Black woman—softly, with trust and surrender—is revolutionary.
Why?
Because real love heals what systems of oppression tried to destroy:
Black families.
Black faith.
Black joy.
Black hope.
“Love is an act of faith. You will not have a guarantee.”
This line hits at the generational trauma of being forced to survive without guarantees—of freedom, of justice, of life. Yet the call to love anyway is a sacred act. A divine rebellion.
4. Modern Distractions: Careerism, Hustle Culture, and Fear of Commitment
“LOVE is not concerned about your career path. LOVE does not Care if you are busy.”
This line calls out how many have substituted careers for connection and status for sacrifice. In a community long denied opportunities, chasing success is understandable—but often love gets sacrificed on the altar of hustle.
Many are busy climbing but lonely.
Busy building—but empty inside.
Real love threatens this illusion of control.
5. The Spiritual Weight of Love
“Hide in a corner trembling in fear, call 911 because love is here.”
This line suggests a visitation—as though love is not just an emotion, but a divine force. In scripture, real love is agape—selfless, sacrificial, covenantal.
In the Black spiritual tradition, love has always been:
A balm for suffering.
A motivator for justice.
A mirror of YAH’s love.
But modern Black culture—hijacked by lust, betrayal music, broken models, and trauma responses—has increasingly pushed real love out of the frame.
6. Final Reflection: Are We Afraid to Be Healed?
To love fully is to open old wounds and allow them to be touched. But most trauma survivors—Black people included—are terrified of that kind of exposure.
So the poem becomes a mirror.
📍Do we fear love because we’ve never seen it?
📍Do we avoid it because it’s too raw, too holy, too unscripted?
📍Do we sabotage it because we don’t believe we’re worthy of it?
Conclusion:
"Does Real Love Scare You?" is not just a personal reflection—it’s a communal cry.
For African Americans, the fear of love is tied to the history of stolen kinship, broken homes, and weaponized affection. But in facing that fear is also the path to redemption, restoration, and righteous Black love—the very force that can rebuild what Babylon tried to destroy.
KELVIN L. STUBBLEFIELD IS A GRADUATE OF Middle Tennessee State University IN 1983.
HE IS THE AUTHOR OF “AMERICAN REPROBATE: YAHUAH'S CURSE AND RESTORATION OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN”. THAT WAS PUBLISHED IN 2012.
HE AND HIS WIFE SANDRIA, CO-FOUNDED “BIGSTUB CREATIONS” IN 2018. We are a vehicle for creativity! Our mission is to encourage individuals to utilize their artistic expression through the performing arts.
He has recently published his second book in November 2023.
STAYING HUMAN: EXAMINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN YAHUAH, MAN AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”.
Biblical, Spiritual, and Social Analysis and Solutions to Black Americans and Mainstream AMERICAN Dysgenics, Narcissistic Self Indulgence, and the Current Politics of Self Annihilation. Amidst the dawning of Artificial General intelligence and Trans-Humanity.
YOU CAN PURCHASE HIS PUBLICATIONS OR LEARN ABOUT OUR NEXT PROJECT; YOU CAN VISIT THE FOLLOWING WEBSITES.
https://www.klstubblefield.com/
Staying Human
https://www.bigstubcreations.com/
https://loveintheblack.blogspot.com/
https://lovingmyhumans.blogspot.com
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