William Ward Butler

Leland Stanford Jr.

It’s an old story: a boy had to die
        before an institution could be made
to contain a father’s grief.
        The child’s funeral mask
like an early draft of humanity, discarded—

                 white, even in death.

Then: crude oil and cross-country railroads,
        the children of California shall be our children,
never mind who was already buried
        in what is now a valley of kingmakers.

Every Halloween, sophomores hold a party at the mausoleum.


William Ward Butler is the poet laureate of Los Gatos, California. He is the author of the chapbook Life History from Ghost City Press. His recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Bennington Review, Denver Quarterly, Five Points, RHINO Poetry, Switchyard, and other journals. He is a poetry reader for TriQuarterly and co-editor-in-chief of Frozen Sea: frozensea.org