there are any days left then and maybe
even not, that’s a time to come which will
be the end of time, my time anyway,
but for now I’m only ten years old, not
old at all but maybe not so young, if
I was Jesus I’d be in the temple
querying the old men there about their
knowledge, even love, of God Almighty
and my folks would be missing me so they’d
hunt me up and track me down there and ask
–it wouldn’t be a question, exactly
–Where the heck have you been, you knucklehead
so I’d answer Here in my Father’s house, 
doncha get it? Then watch ’em make me pay.

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Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Not One of Us (2010), Ascent.