No Other Duty to This World

One writer wrote of another,
Admiringly. The way he wrote,
She wrote, was so worthy he had

No other duty to this world.
Her reader sits up a little
And ponders duty and this world.

There was a well-known actor
And film director who died,
And one of his former stars

Cited his best film, then said
He’d done his duty by life.
A fine way to praise someone,

But this notion of duty,
Of obligation to life,
To the world, to any world

Placed upon an animal
By reason of being born . . .
Really? Not that anyone

Can agree on the notion
Of duty in any case,
And many would find writing

Or making Hollywood films
Sheer evasion of duty,
But whatever duty is,

It’s an inter-human thing,
A social obligation,
Part of negotiations.

The world, life, everything that will
Go on with no humans in them,
No duty can be done by them.