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    five poems by Gale Acuff

    Miraculous

    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.

    Where Love Can Lead

     

    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. 

    Prim

    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.

    Stray

    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

    Grave

    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.

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