button man: noun, informal. Mafia slang for a hired killer. Believed to have come from organized crime's involvement with the garment industry.
Beauty’s a woman, the button man says,
with golden hair and holding a rose,
innocence is a boy in a new choir robe,
who sings with his heart and thinks all men have souls
but wisdom is knowing that sometimes they don’t
and grace is the man who gives her the rose,
pretends that he’s deaf and watches her go,
and patience, he says, is a black suit and tie,
bad coffee and watching your cigarette glow,
courage is a fist you could make but you don’t
and fear, he says, has a shine all its own,
justice is a casket that has to be closed
and beauty’s the man with a hole in his brain
who hired the guy that gave her the rose.