Take It From Butch Poem by Donal Mahoney

Some men discover
that all men are equal
in the eyes of a shark.
It's no wonder Butch
memorized this.

When he was a boy,
his dad would yell
'Get next to yourself! '
whenever he got in trouble,
a frequent occurrence.

His dad would yell
till the neighbors heard him:
'Make yourself useful! '
Advice like this helped
Butch understand

that life is not comfy;
it's a shark eating a minnow.
So Butch took a sandwich,
ran away on his bike,
came back that night with

cops who gave him to Dad
who gave him a whipping
bellowing like Pavarotti:
'Get next to yourself!
Make yourself useful! '

Take it from Butch.
He's memorized this:
Some men discover
that all men are equal
in the eyes of a shark.