Death and by Gale Acuff

When I'm dead I wonder will I know it

and if I will if there's something I can

do about it but if not at least can

I look back on what's past and enjoy it

even if some wasn't enjoyable?

Maybe I can catch myself back there look

-ing to the future, wondering, say, what

Heaven would be like when I died, or Hell,

and which I'd go to, my soul anyway,

and how old I'd be when I died and if

folks would miss me - looking forward to death

isn't much of a life, I guess, or it

wasn't, and now that I'm gone what comes next

and next again? Only the beginning?

                                 --Gale Acuff

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.