The Quiet Burden

In a world where the stones of the past still stand,

I was born beneath a sun that does not warm,

A woman so poor ever-woven from the earth’s bare hand,

To walk through storms that take on every form.

My body but a vessel and bound by silent chains,

A poet on pages where meaning froze,

The lines of toil etched in skin and veins,

As womanhood, my worth too often shows.

The mind, though bright, is caged within the walls,

Of a class, unmoved, despite the fleeting years.

Old echoes whisper in these marble-like halls,

Where progress bows beneath ancestral fears.

Emotion bleeds from cracks the world won’t see,

In rooms where voices never rise too high,

Where dreams are silenced by necessity,

And tears dry swiftly beneath an unkind sky.

I stand alone in crowded rooms of men,

A prolonged stranger in their gilded and hollow air.

My words are spun in vain often time and again,

They fall like leaves… they turn, then disappear.

The cost of life weighs heavy in my palm,

Each coin a debt, unseen, but ever due,

With fleeting moments of a fleeting calm,

And worries that arrive with morning’s dew.

Yet still, I rise… an ember in the dark,

A quiet flame that trembles, but persists,

For though the world may bend and break my heart,

My spirit, though unseen, will still exist.

And so I walk as this woman in this time,

A witness to the old and enduring climb.

-aubs

10-07-24

"The Quiet Burden" reflects the inner struggle of a woman bound by the weight of her circumstances and societal expectations. Born beneath an indifferent sun, her journey is fraught with storms, each taking on new and unyielding forms. Her body, a vessel bound by silent chains, carries the marks of her toil, while her mind, though bright, remains trapped within walls of class and convention. The poem captures the quiet resignation of dreams lost to necessity, where emotion seeps unseen through cracks in a world that refuses to acknowledge them. Yet, despite the unkind sky above, she persists... a quiet flame, unyielding in its existence. This profound piece is a testament to resilience, a voice that endures despite the world’s attempts to silence it.