Attention to Detail

Attention to Detail
Gale Acuff

I hope Miss Hooker goes to Heaven like
she keeps saying she wants to—she's big on
God and Jesus and the Holy Ghost and
she's my Sunday School teacher, nobody
I know or even don't comes nearer to
God so I hope she finally gets to
meet Him, I'll bet He's heard lots about her
but of course He made her after all and
with a lot of attention to detail,
red hair and green eyes and freckles, I mean
Miss Hooker. I don't know what God looks like
but He'll have to go some to out-fine her.
Me, I'll be going to Hell, I guess, she
tells me so herself every Sunday,
how if I keep sinning and don't get saved
even though I'll still sin but not as much
and not so heinously, I'll go to Hell
and be tortured and Don't say I didn't
warn you. She did. And the rest of the class
—she warned the whole lot of us but wouldn't
it be something if when I land in Hell

I'll find her there? I wonder if she'll say
I told you so. Boy, will my face be red,
as red as her hair going up in flames
but maybe she won't be able to see,
my red face, I mean, for all the fire and
blood and brimstone, whatever that is. Then
it'll probably hit me that she's just
as embarrassed as I am. But I won't
rub it in. I'll forgive her. That's righteous.


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