I am from Butler

I am from Butler County, PA

The name isn’t the most graceful I’ll admit

But PA has some gems for towns:

Beaver

Intercourse

Blue Ball

and Butler —

That’s where I go home

To my parents, grandma, and sisters for the holidays

To my closest friends

My doubles partner now a nurse

My fellow music nerds who became professional musicians, artists, and teachers

When my children Google my hometown

If Google is still a thing

The first result with be blood

The first result will be distress

The first result with be anger

When I learn someone’s loved one passed away

I ask them what their happiest memory is of them

To relieve the pain for a moment

And to help keep their person alive

Carrying their memory with me

Allow me a moment to relieve this cut

Butler is a small quiet rural county

Where no one famous is from

It is proud, but doesn’t need to prove

And people love the Steelers

It is full of mom and pop shops

The ones that still sell high quality things

And know your name

The outdoors are beautiful

Yet to be touched by concrete

I grew up thinking

Our forest in the backyard was enchanted

I still do

You don’t need shiny shoes

A bit of dirt is better actually

It’s one of the last salt of the earth places

Where people see through facade

And superficiality has yet to intrude

I am from Butler

There are many good people who live in Butler

But despite this

An outsider’s actions now define a home that wasn’t theirs

Butler —

There is now Blood

There is now Distress

There is now Anger

But we are still Steel