By Gale Acuff

when I’m dead and in Heaven I’ll look back

on life and maybe this very moment

and laugh, which might be true because she adds

that we get all-new bodies yonder and

I guess laughter’s possible, I think

that in Heaven folks cry except for joy

and maybe down in Hell if they can laugh

then they laugh at their unhappiness but

I’m not sure and don’t know how to tell her

that I’ll be going to Hell when I die

and not the Good Place but at least I’ll learn

if I’m right and the tragedy will be

I can’t see my way back to tell people

the truth they’re dying to know. And they should.

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.