Bound By What I Owe Poem by ashok jadhav

Desire arrives like fire beneath the skin,
Unasked, insistent, warm with promise made.
It speaks in images of what could be,
Of paths untaken glowing in the mind.
Yet duty stands with measured, steady gaze,
Recalling vows the heart once chose to keep.
I feel the pull of wanting and of ought,
Each claiming right with reasons hard to deny.
To follow one is still to wound the other;
The cost is paid no matter which I choose.
So I contain the urge and name it strength,
Though loss moves quietly beneath the name.
Some sacrifices never earn applause;
They live as discipline the world won't see.