I'd
say that I don't want to die but I
by
Gale Acuff
do, do want to die
that is, but also
do because
I am, and so are others,
facing what I
face, whatever it's called.
I wonder how they
manage mortali
-ty. . . better
than I do, let's hope, because
on my last date
the subject arose, death
that is, and she
wasn't prepared when I
asked her if she
was afraid to die—or
maybe she was and
I wasn't even
though I was who
asked the cosmic question
that made her
reply I have to powder
my nose. Then
she came back with her face moist.
I'd say that she's
dead already save that
when I call, she
answers. So I hang up.
Gale Acuff has had hundreds of poems published in a dozen
countries and have authored three books of poetry. His poems have appeared
in Ascent, Reed, Arkansas Review, Poem, Slant, Aethlon, Florida
Review, South Carolina Review, Carolina Quarterly, Roanoke
Review, Danse Macabre, Ohio Journal, Sou'wester, South
Dakota Review, North Dakota Quarterly, New Texas, Midwest
Quarterly, Poetry Midwest, Adirondack Review, Worcester
Review, Adirondack Review, Connecticut River Review, Delmarva
Review, Maryland Poetry Review, Maryland Literary
Review, George Washington Review, Pennsylvania Literary
Journal, Ann Arbor Review, Plainsongs, Chiron
Review, George Washington Review, McNeese Review, Weber, War,
Literature & the Arts, Poet Lore, Able Muse, The
Font, Fine Lines, Teach.Write., Oracle, Hamilton
Stone Review, Sequential Art Narrative in Education, Cardiff Review, Tokyo
Review, Indian Review, Muse India, Bombay
Review, Westerly, and many other journals.
He has taught tertiary English courses in the U.S., PR China,
and Palestine.
