- Gale Acuff
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