Forgotten realities

For a while
I said your name
I wore it like a badge
Shiny, proud
I carried it and showed it only
To everyone

One day
After years of tarnish
the pin
fell off the back
And it dropped
to the ground

I wasn’t shot
It didn’t
deflect a bullet
And
nobody
died

I am still standing
And you are too
Me,
a boy playing sheriff in white clothes
You,
not the bad guy in black

These forgotten realities
include sagebrush blowing
Through a dusty town
An old guy walking down a creaky boardwalk
And seduction leaning easily in a doorway

In this
old western dream.