The Spirit of Butler ~

Butlerites write letters
of condolence
when someone dies,
bring food to back doors
and tramp through matted grass
in graveyards
looking for old friends—
but what is more
they find them again
when passing
the clapboard houses
they once lived in
now lining our streets
tidy and proud,
monuments for us
to them they housed,
those whose spirit flowed
into the making of this our town
giving it life we are heirs of
and will draw from long.