No one wants to die but I’ll volunteer
because that’s the only way to go to
Heaven and dwell for Eternity swears
my Sunday School teacher but anyway
everyone dies in the end, in the end
before the beginning of the After
-life, religion is what that is and I’m
only ten years old and could croak at any
time but if I kill myself it doesn’t
count, God will send me to Hell forever
with no stab at getting all the goodies
of Heaven, streets of gold and angels’ wings
and 100% happiness, not to
mention perfection (I’d pay to see that)
and some perks. But I’d just settle for sin.
Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in a dozen countries and has authored three books of poetry. His poems have appeared in Ascent, Reed, Arkansas Review, Poem, Slant, Aethlon, Florida Review, South Carolina Review, Carolina Quarterly, Roanoke Danse Macabre, Ohio Journal, and many other journals. Gale has taught tertiary English courses in the US, PR China, and Palestine.
