If you have to ask...

Why does the artist
paint
what no one will see?
And, why does the poet
write
what no one will read?
Why does the musician
compose
what no one will hear?
And, why does the singer
sing
what reaches no other ear?
Why does each one
labor
for what others deem naught?
Why not just do what those others,
think
that he ought?

Why? O why? O why? O why?
Don't you know that it's just
that he must,
    lest he die?
But, if you do have to ask,
you may never know why.

Joseph Weilenbeck 2018