Title: The Crossroads Of The Heart Poem by ashok jadhav

(The speaker stands at an imaginary threshold, hands clenched, breathing heavy. Their voice trembles between longing and resolve.)
Monologue:
Do you know what it's like…
to want something so badly, so completely,
that your very soul aches for it…
and yet know… know in your bones
that to take it would destroy everything you promised, everything you swore to uphold?
I feel it—the pull, the fire inside me…
desire that burns hotter than any sense of reason.
Every glance, every thought, every memory of what could be…
it tempts me, lures me closer to the edge.
But duty… duty stands there, silent and unyielding,
demanding I turn away, demanding I hold myself back.
It whispers, steady and cruel: If you give in, you betray more than yourself.
And yet, how can I betray my heart when it beats only for this?
I am torn.
Ripped in two.
Half of me yearning, half of me shrinking beneath the weight of responsibility.
And the agony… the agony is that I know
I cannot have both.
One must die, and I… I am the executioner.
Sometimes I dream of surrender, of throwing it all aside,
letting desire consume me, letting the world burn behind me…
but then I remember what I promised,
what I am meant to protect,
and the fire turns to ash in my hands.
(Pauses, voice softening, almost whispering.)
How do you choose?
When the heart demands one path
and the soul insists on another…
which do you follow, when either choice will leave you broken?
(The speaker sinks to their knees, hands clasped over their chest, eyes lifted as if seeking guidance, caught forever between longing and duty.)