Gale Acuff
Bright
One day I’ll have to die but I won’t care
then, being dead, if I care at all it
will be about something else, I guess, I
guess what things will be like after eter
-nity but then again maybe God will
have something new for me to do, different
anyway from what I’m used to here, here
where I’m still alive, Earth that is, and at
Sunday School it’s all laid out plainly for
us fourth graders, first we die and our souls
go to God to get judged and if we’ve been
good or probably even better than
good then we dwell in Heaven forever
but if we’ve been bad burn in Hell, also
forever and I’m good with that, I just
hope that there’s something to do over there
besides be an angel and fly around,
I think that I’d rather be a bird, in
Hell maybe I’d get my wish but wouldn’t
be surprised to be an ostrich, emu,
penguin, cassowary, kiwi, or what
-ever fowl won’t fly, and playing the harp’s
no way to get girls and as for singing
hymns I’d rather be an original
Beach Boy and sing about deuce coupes or
gals or surfing and after Sunday School
I confessed to my teacher how I feel
and she took off her glasses and gazed through
them, at what I’m not sure but her naked
eyes reminded me of a kitten’s just
newly and still barely opened and then
she put them back on and said to me Gale,
next Sunday you and your little classmates
will have a new teacher so I panicked
and said All right, ma’am, but what about my
big classmates, then she said I’ve changed my mind
and I said Yes, I guess you saw the light.
Gale Acuff is the author of three poetry collection published by BrickHouse Press—Buffalo Nickel (2004), The Weight of the World (2006), and The Story of My Lives (2008). His poems have appeared in Ascent, Chiron Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Poem, Adirondack Review, and many other journals.
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