A Tribute to Ernest Butts on The Occasion of His 70th Birthday

Editors note: Ernest "Sheik" Butts of Middletown died on September 6, 2015 at the age of 90.












By Susan Allison

There is a man in our town 

a host to strangers

who pass too quickly 

through the North End

in their cars on Main

Street.

He once said he wore funny hats 

just to scare those people off.

He

is always a topic of conversation in the neighborhood. Praising him, repeating

his stories and words. 

Someone might say 'he made me so mad the other

day!'

But of course they will go 

to his birthday party 

to honor him.

You might see him sometimes 

at the Town Hall 

and in the council chambers

when all the town leaders are talking about what to do concerning troublesome

youth,

this man will be the only one 

who uses the word love. 

If you're

riding high he'll bring you right smack down to the sidewalk. And if you're

lying on the ground 

he'll raise you back up on your feet. And if you are

simply content 

he'll make you hopping mad.

He says he is from Georgia 

but

no one knows for sure - 

the way he talks about angels and flying saucers,

other dimensions, and uncommon sense. 

He is looking beyond 

the here and

now 

from the corner of Rapallo and Main. He is looking toward a time 

when

folks will realize 

what they've got here 

respect the life 

that has brought

them this far 

and be accountable for it.

He says look up to the skies to

possibility, 

uncomplex the complexity, 

look down to the ground to the bones

of those who've gone before you, 

and look all around at what is happening now.

Is there maybe a better way,

where community is the same as harmony, 

each

with equal parts to play, 

where everyone can have their say, and all get a

chance to have their day, where adults be adults 

so the children can play?

So if you're walking down Main Street and you pass Rapallo Avenue 

you just

might meet a man there 

who will tell you about the pain that most of the world

lives with, the strife, the absurdity, classism, racism, and just when you start

to get fed up, thinking 'why me, how come I have to do something about it, why

doesn't anyone else to something about it,' because you've already got too much

on your mind, 

then he will trick you and he will make you smile, 

and you'll

realize that you haven't done that in a while, 

and you leave that corner

believing that maybe

it's going to be a better day.