Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
When I die I'll live again is what church
preaches, ours anyway, and Sunday School,
if I think I'm having fun now alive,
when I am having fun that is, it won't
be a thing like the fun I'll have when I'm
dead our preacher says with a smile and I
wanted to raise my hand during his speech,
sermon that is, but you don't do that in
church, Hell, I don't even do it at school,
regular school I mean, I guess that's why
I get called on a lot but still I'm not
prepared, I guess I'm a little proud of
that but anyway to have good clean fun
in Heaven I have to die anyway,
no one lives forever, God doesn't count,
he's not flesh and blood and though Jesus was
it's kind of not fair, He's also a god,
the Son of God they say, and the Holy
Ghost, who really knows who He is, I don't
think I want to live again no matter how nice
it is and after Sunday School class this
morning I told my teacher so and she
asked why and I said that I like it here
fine, on Earth that is, most of it, if God
can make Heaven then He ought to be
able to stop overpopulation
or send some folks to other planets and
help us all see to ourselves, forget
that we'd be aging maybe forever.
And then she sat down but the thing was
she was already. It’s a miracle.
I may not have much time left even though
I'm ten years old and in perfect health, more's
the pity, God might take me at any
time, I'll have to leave my dog and parents
and regular school, I won't miss it much,
and Sunday School, where I'm kind of in love
with my teacher even though she's old, she's
25 but that's all right, Jesus said
love your neighbor and sometimes love leads to
marriage and when I'm older it won't so
much matter if she's older, too, any
-way I guess when we're dead we'll be the same
age, everybody will, well, not -body,
we'll leave our bodies behind but get new
ones she tells us kids but anyway I
could die, like I say, whenever God wants
me to so I shouldn't waste time, I should
maybe waste my breath instead and tell her
that I love her and maybe she'll say that
she'll wait until I shave and drive and work and
maybe I'll go to college and become
a preacher and then she can come work for me
and we'll go home together after church
but first the Korn Dawg King for the special
and talk with our parishioners, that's folks
who will come listen to me and then we'll
go home and have a nap, then wake up and
watch TV and maybe read the Good Book
and have supper and then watch TV or
maybe hit the Bible again and have
a snack and then go to bed and wait for
children - I guess you must pray for ‘em hard.
Hell yes, I love Jesus I shout when she
asks all us children if we do, love Him
I mean, Jesus that is, Miss Hooker I
mean, our Sunday School teacher, so I guess
I get a little carried away some
-times, I just get all -jacked by the Spirit.
also known as the Holy Ghost and most
-ly so in our church, we're what you call prim
-itives, that's what Mother and Father say,
they should know, they hardly come to church at
all but send me here since God's close enough
to walk to so they don't have to drive me
anywhere, any other church I mean,
God's as good there as anywhere else says
Father and Mother says I'll drink to that
ha ha but we don't drink, at church I mean,
I'm only 10 so I don't drink but then
Father likes his Blatz and Mother Mogen
David and besides there's nothing good on
TV Sunday mornings anyway, no
cartoons but Astro Boy and Tobor and
Simba the White Lion and I'm in love
with her, Miss Hooker I mean, even though
she's 25 flippin' years old but one
day we'll get spliced if only for a spell
until she dies but Mother told Father
once It's not how long it is, it's how you
use it and maybe that's good for ages,
too, not just whatever she was talking
about and maybe I'll tell Miss Hooker
that or maybe she'll tell me or maybe
I'll ask her first just what gives but any
-way she held me back after Sunday School
and told me not to never curse in class
again, not in the House of God, not for
no reason nor good nor bad, that's a lot
of Thous-shalt-nots but not in so many
words and I said Yes ma'am, can I go now,
I've learned my lesson, whatever it is.
But I might die before she does. True love.
This morning in Sunday School I had it
bad, diarrhea I mean, too much pop
-corn last night, the microwave cheese kind and
for breakfast today it was grape Tang and
Sugar Pops and though Sugar Pops are tops
they were tops only in my bottom so
I ran like Hell from our portable class
-room-trailer-on-wheels that don't roll is what
it is and if I was Robin, the Boy
Wonder or is that were I'd holler
Holy Ezekiel, I mean those wheels
within wheels he swore he saw, Miss Hooker's
our Sunday School teacher and she really
believes that he saw them, that he wasn't
toasted and more power to him, I guess
--but even more to her and as for me
I'm only ten years old, I don't know shit
from Shinola, at least Father says so
but to be fair to him he says that to
Mother, too, and my dog, and the stray cat
that sleeps with him, with Caesar I mean, he's
my dog I mean, and sometimes we sleep to
-gether if I can sneak the two upstairs
to my attic bedroom especially
at night, I guess the heat's just to tired to
rise to the top of the house, that's my bum
luck and speaking of luck I made it just
in time to the bathroom off the main hall
of our church and thank God or anyway
thank goodness or my lucky stars, whatever,
it's all God sooner or later, that I
made it without soiling myself, crapping
in my underwear I mean, talk about
embarrassing, it's embarrassing just
to think about and when I was finished
stinking up the room I slipped out before
anybody could see it was me, or
is that I, and beat it back to our class
-room, Ezekiel's Trailer I call it,
and after church I asked Miss Hooker if
God wanted the thing to fly, our trailer
that is, could He make it sprout wings and she
answered, Gale, if He wanted to, He could
make you sprout wings. She thinks I'm an angel
I’m going to die soon - no, I mean that
I’m going to die sometime but sometime
is pretty soon, too, even if I live
to be 100 and I’m only 10
but God’s ages older and Jesus, too,
even if He’s His son, Jesus is God’s
I mean, but then again Miss Hooker says
at Sunday School They’re one and the same since
In the beginning was the Word and it
was Jesus and she’s 25, I mean
Miss Hooker’s 25, that’s pretty old
or older than 10, less than 100,
much less than infinity which is what
I guess God’s age is, Jesus’s, too, plus
the Holy Ghost’s and after church today
I told Miss Hooker that I’m not really
10 but infinity, too, just like God
because He made me, He made me in His
image and since He created me there’s
some of Him in me and maybe even
all and the same goes for her so there it
is and she was so surprised, amazed is
what she called herself that she started to
cry and then I said Your tears were always
inside you, like the Kingdom of Heaven -
There’s nothing new under the sun, and she
finally died then, her tears I mean, then
told me to walk home like I always do
so my little trick didn’t work, I didn’t get
a ride, I had to walk, and as for her
tears, she probably got what’s impure out
so even though I sinned I did some good
so I guess I’ll go on sinning, at least
like that and not bother God to forgive
me but to sort it all out when I’m dead
and in my grave and waiting for the Judgment
Day. That should be enough time. No hurry.
Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Chiron Review, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Poem, Adirondack Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Florida Review, Slant, Nebo, Arkansas Review, South Dakota Review, and many other journals. He has authored three books of poetry, all from BrickHouse Press: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives.
He has taught university English courses in the US, China, and Palestine.