You Were Asked to Be Your Worst

​You were asked to be your worst,
But I was asked to betray my best,
All along the dirt road,
Everyone had acquiesced.

The courts worked. If someone stole
Your horse, you could get it back. But
Every day, the janitor scrubbed
And couldn’t seal the wood grain shut.

Here and there at night you might see
A light in a window, someone was up,
A doctor or a nurse, sitting and thinking
Or pacing the floor, holding a teacup.