The Rail
Fiction, nonfiction, and poetry from our favorite emerging writers
9/24/2021 0 Comments 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 AcuffJesus 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.
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