Where Plain Duty Lies

 Dawn excites the morning skies where a world of Duty lies, Pray, before its memories drift, oh, we do not waste this gift!

Sometimes, where my plain Duty lay

I turned my head the other way

And whispered words with pretty eyes

Believing my self-wrought disguise

Declining love’s soul-surgery

Of patient humility

…but I could never bar the guilt

That mocked me beneath night’s quilt

Or pretend away truth’s stealth

Unable to fool myself

For the key to happy living

Lies not in getting, but giving

Somewhere mercy’s benefactor

Quiets accusation’s actor

Though, like Peter I denied

Love’s plain Duty, grace replied

Replenishing life’s sin-stained awning

With a gift of faultless dawning

Today, where my plain Duty lies

Pray I do not close my eyes

Nor seek to absolve its tug

With some fantasy I hug

Lord, this day help me to prove

The meek mission of true love

© Janet Martin

 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 1 Cor.3:13