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about
"If there is one thing I do in this life, it would be to teach people to be thankful for what they have instead of dwelling on what they don’t."
-Brock Barber Butler
Brock Barber Butler died September 28, 2012 while waiting for a liver transplant. You’d never know it by talking to him, but he had been battling Crohn’s disease since he was 10 years old.
In his memory, please consider being an organ donor.
The proceeds of this poem go to his family.
lyrics
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There’s a few things you should know about us lifeguards:
We are water-board immune.
We are Red-Cross Red-Barons.
We’ve got swimming pool sniper eyes like Robocop. Scanning the chlorine for shark infestations and pirates. Lifeguards are like goonies, we never say die. Because death doesn’t exist so long as we have these red rescue tubes and CPR cards.
We sink pirate ships by blowing cannonballs out of our Fox 40’s. FFST! No running! FFST! No diving! FFST! Make me a sandwich. Make it a hero with extra savior so I can savior every bite.
Because lifeguards are saviors and saviors are like goonies they never say die.
Brock, you agreed with me that sometimes, we lifeguards were the most dangerous thing at the pool. Like the time we broke every rule playing chicken on the waterslide… and got caught… worth it. These rules were trivialities we couldn’t afford. Death is just a myth with too many followers. Like cancer, and suicide, and murder, and… Crohn’s disease.
I don’t know what kind of sermon death could preach that would cause white blood cells to attack healthy tissue… But it’s a false faith you didn’t subscribe to. Knowing there were things more powerful. Like music. A single guitar riff could shatter the cathedral windows on the Reaper’s Sunday service. There would be no sacrament of heartbeats tonight!
Your Jaundice was just the gold shining through your skin because you were golden. For those last 11 years you had 1 foot in Eldorado cutting down Xibalba with a C-sharp.
I look at you now and remember those days when we wore faces like Top Gun and whistles and tank tops and swimming suits.
And Brock… I thought I should tell ya... I hate to be the one who points this out, but… You’re wearing the wrong kind of suit right now… We’re lifeguards remember? Lifeguards never… say…
credits
released October 1, 2012
Written and Performed by RJ Walker in memory of Brock Butler
Poet Douglas Kearney and composer/producer/drummer Val Jeanty link up for a a compelling LP that feels like the written word come to life. Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 30, 2021
