Poems by Gale Acuff
One day when you're dead you rise again, I
forget exactly how but that's what they
swear to at Sunday School and then she smiles,
our Sunday School teacher, she smiles and says
Isn't that wonderful, children, so we
say yes but it sort of scares me, coming
back to life just when I was sure that my
troubles were over but maybe I'll feel
differently when I'm dead, maybe even
when I'm not quite, on my deathbed, say, but all
I am now is ten years old and when I
told Mother what I learned at church today
she said Don't worry, boy, that's religion,
don't take it too seriously but when
I ask why she doesn't attend she laughs.
I don't want to die but my Sunday School
teacher says I've died once already, I
died into life when I was born, she says,
so to speak, she adds, then smiles--I'm only
ten years old and don't really know what she's
talking about but to be safe I smile
back, not that I planned to, it just happened
that way, maybe it was the Grace of God
or something involuntary they say
in biology class at regular
school, I'm not sure which but after I said
Goodbye, see you next time to my Sunday
School teacher it came to me that this will
be the rest of my life, religion or
science but no in between. Born again.
I'm not afraid of death, I'm ten years old,
I'm not afraid of anything I say
to myself when I am, when I'm afraid
that is, and sometimes it helps and sometimes
not but last night I dreamt I died and went
to Heaven to be judged and I flunked judge
-ment so God sent me to Hell and when I
woke this morning it was Purgatory
of a kind, ha ha--life on Earth, the same
old life, school this morning again and
I forgot my lunch money again and
the bus was so crowded I had to stand
and when it suddenly stopped I got knocked
out, my head striking the metal top of
a seat. When I wake up, I hope I don't.
Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in a dozen countries and has authored three books of poetry. Gale has taught tertiary English courses in the US, PR China, and Palestine.
Posted on November 1st 2023