Gale Acuff

Never Mind

One day I’m alive and the next I’m dead
but I don’t know exactly when, when I
die I mean but I’m pretty sure I’m a
-live now, I just sat through another Sun

-day School and then I stayed after to ask
my teacher why if I have to die was
I ever born and she answered by clear
-ing her throat first to let the words escape clean

-ly and maybe because Satan was block
-ing her reply but she didn’t say so,
did, which made me wonder whether I
already knew the answer to what I

hadn’t asked yet so before she could re
-ply I said Never mind, ma’am, I’ve got it
now and she sure is smart to help me be
-fore I even ask. She’d make a good God.


Gale Acuff has had poetry published in AscentReedPoet Lore, Chiron ReviewCardiff Review, Poem, Adirondack Review, Florida Review, Slant, NeboArkansas Review, South Dakota ReviewRoanoke Review, and many other journals in eleven countries. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives.