UNTITLED ART by Anna Hardy
GUM by Gale Acuff
One day when I’m in Hell because for ten
years old I’m an accomplished sinner, this
time for swiping Doublemint from the store,
I’ll fall to my knees, if I still have them,
if they’re not all aflame or have their skin
all boiled off, and raise my head and spread my
arms and holler up toward Heaven (though
the earth will be in the way), I’m sorry
O Lord, have mercy on me, deliver
me, I mean get me out of here (do they
have days in Hell or for that matter in
Heaven?)–I forget where I was going
with this except to say that in Sunday
School class Miss Hooker caught me chewing it
and only because I tried to blow it
like bubblegum but of course it didn’t
take, only a miracle would’ve made
it so and sometimes I don’t care where one
comes from, a miracle I mean, God or
Satan, as long as I get what I want
and that’s what I told Miss Hooker after
class, when she let me back in the classroom
and I was out in the hall working on
another piece, which I took out of my
mouth and flipped up to stick to the ceiling
before I went back in to tell her how
sorry I was, which I wasn’t. She wept
to hear me. Crying’s contagious sometimes
and I almost bawled myself. I wanted
to hold her and say, There, there, like they do
on TV but she’s 25 to my
10 and if I had the chance to go too
far I wouldn’t know how to proceed and
fat chance that she would show me, grownups go
to jail sometimes for demonstrating what
they know too much of, not sin exactly
but pretty damn close. Miss Hooker dried her
eyes with the backs of her palms, like a kid,
then put her spectacles back in and said
that I should run along home. So I did.
If I go to Hell for this I’d like to
go with her sin on me as well, her part
in it anyway. That way when I look
up to God and beg to be allowed in
-to Heaven He’ll more likely grant me my wish.
When I see Miss Hooker up there, I’ll bet
she weeps again, this time for happiness.
Either way love can get pretty messy.
I might be better off right where I am.
Gale Acuff has had poetry published in Ascent, Reed, Poet Lore, Chiron Review, Poem, Adirondack Review, Florida Review, Slant, Nebo, Arkansas Review, South Dakota Review, Roanoke Review, and many other journals in eleven countries. He has authored three books of poetry: Buffalo Nickel, The Weight of the World, and The Story of My Lives. He has taught university English courses in the US, China, and Palestine.
Anna Hardy is a 19 year old artist currently studying fashion at the Manchester School of Art. Her work primarily focuses on portraiture whilst having undertones of fashion to it. She hopes to continue doing her digital drawings to develop her skills and continue selling prints of her art.