Gale's poetry has been published in Ascent, Ohio Journal, Descant, Adirondack Review, Concho River Review, Worcester Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Florida
Review, South Carolina Review, Arkansas Review, Carolina Quarterly, Poem, South Dakota Review, Santa Barbara Review, Sequential Art Narrative in Education, and many other journals. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel (BrickHouse Press, 2004), The Weight of the World (BrickHouse, 2006), and The Story of My Lives (BrickHouse, 2008). He has taught university English in the US, China, and the Palestinian West Bank
Last Breakfast
In Sunday School today I got saved, I
passed out, anyway, and Miss Hooker raised
me up again, not that I was dead for
real
but I wasn't on my feet, either,
until she revived me--when I came to
she was slapping my cheeks, I mean on my
she was slapping my cheeks, I mean on my
ten years old, and she's got a slew of freckles,
they look something like the stars spinning
just
before I passed
out, not enough breakfast,
I guess, sometimes I'm excited Sunday
mornings because then I see Miss Hooker
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| Indiana Voice Journal PDD |
the
only time during the week. Maybe
I got slain in the spirit--after class
Miss Hooker held me back and questioned me
about what I saw when I couldn't see
like we should when we're not asleep and I
couldn't remember anything so she
asked me Did you have a vision, did I
see God or Jesus or the Holy Ghost
and I wanted to make her happy
since
one day I want her to marry me and
me
her even though she's 25 now
and one way to happiness is to lie
so I said, Yes ma'am, it's coming back now,
I saw Jesus standing there behind you
while you were telling the old one about
Joseph and the coat of many colors
and He was smiling, Jesus was, and when
you finished He led us all in prayer
and after we all shouted Amen He
vanished and then you resurrected me,
so to speak. Then Miss Hooker started
to
cry and that's when I slipped away
and I
don't know about next Sunday, it might rain.
~Gale Acuff
~Gale Acuff
