Jesus went to Hell, I hear, in Sunday, One day when I'm dead I'll go to Heaven, & One day I'll be dead says my Sunday School, by Gale Acuff

Jesus went to Hell, I hear, in Sunday

School, I mean that that's where I heard that but
He didn't hang there long, He worked His way
out and up to Heaven and I wonder
if when I croak I'll do likewise, go to
​Hell for a space even if I'm lucky
enough to score Heaven, which I doubt, and
have a look-see maybe at the torment
and torture that might have been for me, then
an angel whisks me away to Heaven
and if I know me then in Paradise
I won't be able to get out of my
head or mind or but most likely soul Satan
and Hellfire and losers and Perdition.
Maybe the best Good Place is back on Earth.

One day when I'm dead I'll go to Heaven

or Hell, most likely Hell or is that more,
I'm flunking fourth grade and failing life, too,
at least I'm consistent, ha ha, says my
Sunday School teacher, she always has to
look on the bright side or find something good
or funny at least in everything, it's
goddamn annoying sometimes so I hope
that she doesn't go to Hell, too, when she
kicks for being more likeable than God
in the Old Testament, He's pretty grim
and stern and un-com-pro-mi-sing, that's
a word I learned in regular school, where
there's no God to gum up the works and I'm
safe until Sunday School. And failing on.

​One day I'll be dead says my Sunday School

teacher so I'd better get ready for it
now and what she means is that I go to
the Good Place or the Bad, eternity's
for how long and she's sweet on Heaven since
there's a lot less pain there, she says, in Hell
practically all folks do is suffer and
suffer some more and then suffer still more
and she doesn't want that for me, no sir,
I might be quite a little sinner for 
ten years old but I deserve a break but
only I can give it to me so I
need to get saved, she says, so we pray to
-gether, down on our knees but she does all
of the talking. I just look and listen.

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 a dozen countries. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives.