Phil, and anyone else who’s interested.
I truly appreciate your comment about using the same word twice in quick succession. I may change the second reference to stern rather than arse. But both men were of the generation to instinctively say arse, and sailors, despite knowing the proper terms, will still refer to ‘the sharp end’ and ‘the arse end’ of their ship.
To me ‘butt’ is inextricably linked to the thick end of a rifle stock.
But it gives me a chance to - maybe - explain some of the differences I see between storytellers, prose writers, and poets. And why I don’t really see myself as a poet, just a writer who enjoys - sometimes - playing with shorter lines.
I’m primarily a storyteller, whether the tale is fact or fiction. I write rather than orate because I can reach a wider audience. And some things are too personal to read out loud.
As such I look for words to ‘get the job done’, get the story told. I don’t agonise for hours if it’s the perfect word for the occasion. I do try to avoid ambiguous words, which some poets seem to embrace as a way of letting the reader interpret the text in their own way.
Many poets seem to absolutely revel in complex forms and concealed metaphors. I generally enjoy reading this kind of thing, but it’s not the way my mind writes stuff. It may well be that my strain of mild autism normally just skips that part of creativity. The imperative is to get the job done, get the tale told.
I appreciate good sonics and neat alliteration, but what trips out of my fingers is, from my viewpoint, functional English. Just packaged a little differently for poetry.
If you want to see how I handle prose, some funny, some dark, there’s a few examples over in the forbidden territory of the prose section 
Same words, different mindset.
Gyppo