Gale Acuff

Sometimes you die, I mean everybody

by you, in regular school you is you
or you are you and sometimes both at once
if there's more than one of you and I asked
my Sunday School teacher if Heaven's so
full of dead souls it's standing-room-only
like at an Aerosmith concert but she
frowned and said nix, there's no comparison
between Steve What's-His-Name and Jesus
Christ so I said Yes ma'am but that's not what
I mean, then she smiled and said There's plenty
of space for everyone in Heaven, Gale
--the problem is that so many go to
the Bad Place instead, where all rock 'n' roll
bands go, especially the Christian ones.

Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Reed, Journal of Black Mountain College Studies, The Fon,t Chiron Review, Poem, Adirondack Review, Florida Review, Slant, Arkansas Review, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review and many other journals in over a dozen countries. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives, and taught university English courses in the US, China, and Palestine.