Trinity

By Gale Acuff

I don't want to die but I don't want to
live, neither, I want a third choice and at
Sunday School I asked my teacher just what
that would be but she sank into her big
blue chair while I was standing beside my
red one and looking like I have four legs
or maybe, beetle-like, six, I was going
to ask her but suddenly she answered
Gale, the third place is Earth but you can't stay,
when you die you go to Heaven to be
judged and then God keeps you there if you've been
good but if you're bad then He sends you to
Hell. I said I like Earth enough to spend
forever here dead. Then I closed her eyes.

Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in several countries and is the author of three books of poetry. He has taught university English in the US, China, and Palestine.