Title: Obligate: Sufficient
Fandom: Original
Challenge: Feast or Famine
Other prompt: N/A
Rating: G
Length: 123
Content notes: A sonnet in hexameter
Author notes: Thanks go to Zhie, Morgynleri & Runa for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: Neither feast nor famine this, but mere subsistence


Neither feast nor famine this, but mere subsistence
Just enough (of time, of space, of unencumbered thought)
To feed the spirit word-held, denied resistance
Yet resisting all the same: not serving should or ought.
O But kitchen-labor calls, to feed another
Food, yes, but more attention, for which I am unfit
By temperament and knowledge, I am no mother
Nurse, or body's nurturer; and touch no perquisite
But penance, to be withstood -- even only hands.
I promised this attendance, this plate with duty filled
And I will hold fast to my word, do what it demands
Duly obligation feed, until the need is stilled
      In stillness bank the fire, dishes put away
      Set all the ducks in rows; no longer will I stay