The Weight We Bear

by Al Konda

There are poems that come from memory, and poems that come from imagination.

This one comes from the part of the soul that remembers what it did not live —

the inheritance we carry whether we want it or not.

The Weight We Bear is not a poem about history.

It’s a poem about the things history leaves behind inside us.

We live in a world that teaches us to “move on,”

to pretend the past is distant, resolved, uncomplicated.

But some truths do not fade with time —

they settle in the body, in the breath,

in the way we stand up when something tries to push us down.

The poem speaks to that.

To the people who lived before us

and didn’t get the chance to finish their story.

To the resilience that wasn’t chosen

but still lives in our blood.

To the knowledge that survival is rarely beautiful,

and never clean.

I wrote this piece while thinking about the quiet strength

hidden in ordinary people —

the kind that doesn’t get monuments,

the kind that doesn’t make textbooks,

the kind that keeps the world standing

long after empires fall.

Some inherit land.

Some inherit peace.

But many of us inherit the unfinished fight

of those who were not allowed to stay.

This poem is for them.

And for us —

who carry their echo every day,

who refuse to kneel,

who choose to walk forward with eyes open

even when the world prefers us blind.

If this poem finds you,

if it resonates,

then maybe you carry some of that ancient weight too.

And maybe — just maybe —

that weight is also what keeps you standing.

Poetical Vibe