Choices At Night Poem by Richmon Rey Jundis

(A poem based on the Deontic Theory of Immanuel Kant)

Gasping for breath, trembling and terrified,
I am being cornered by two obligations
Under the twenty-first street's lamppost
In the 11: 59 at night.

Two obligations that have equal value
Demand me to choose between the two,
As both point guns at me at the same time,
Guns that are to be triggered if one of the duties
Is chosen over the other.

Can't I do both at the same time?
But how can I choose when time and space
Limit my body and soul to do only one.
I shouted for help,
But everyone seems asleep,
As the melodious singing of Cicadas
Is slowly turning
To a troubling noise of fear outside me.

No one can save me at this moment,
Even if I choose to do one of these demanding duties of life:
To live authentically
As what I have promised to my late grandmother,
Or to do my duty that was forced by human law in me.

The future will not help me
To convince the two obligations
To not force me choose either of them.
The past mistakes of promising
And accepting unprecedented occurrence
Of duties imposed by unwanted laws on me
Will just slap me of my arrogance.

This night,
Under the burnt-out light of twenty-first's lamppost,
I must choose between the two
Despite the terrors of the guns
That give me glimpse of sweet death,
Sweet death that will free me from choosing
Between the two demanding duties of life.