And I Will Dwell in the House of the Lord Forever

And I Will Dwell in the House

of the Lord Forever

Miss Hooker says that before I know it

I'll be dead, God could take me at any

time. She's my Sunday School teacher, I mean

Miss Hooker is, and when she dies I'll miss

her, not that I like to dwell upon it,

her red hair and green eyes and freckles gone

forever, at least until I'm dead too,

and join her up in Heaven, that is if

I've been good enough to get in, which means

no more sinning, at least not on purpose

or else I'll land in Hell, Miss Hooker says,

to burn longer than forever, which

is a pretty long time. I'm no good in

regular school and I'm only 10 but

even I know that numbers can go high

and never end, at least until they count

up to God. Miss Hooker says that we get

all-new bodies in Heaven, but if I

get to live there, too, dwell there, that is, I

don't know what I'll do if God takes away

Miss Hooker's red hair, green eyes, and freckles

and substitutes some other sort of looks.

I might just complain or ask to be shipped

to Satan just to teach God a lesson,

I wonder what that would be? After class

I told Miss Hooker all about it and

how she'll lose her beauty through God's boner.

She told me I was saved and then we prayed,

I forget for what. The end of it all?

—Gale Acuff

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