I don't want to die but I've got no choice

 

 

Gale Acuff

 

 

but I can choose to live forever when
I go and if I choose the good is what
they say at church and Sunday School although
they've got no evidence, no one's returned
from being dead as far as I know but
they say Jesus did, it's in the Bible
if I want proof and so on but I don't
believe even though they say that faith is
the evidence of things not seen and all
that but still I'm skeptical--that's a good
word for someone only ten years old but
I don't use it around them, I keep my
good sense to myself, I wonder for how
long—until I'm dead, let’s say. Then we'll see. 

 

 

 

Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Reed, Journal of Black Mountain College Studies, The Font 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.

Gale has taught university English courses in the US, China, and Palestine.