The Weight of Tomorrow

Morning came as it always had
The markets opened
The children laughed
The wind crossed the hills

Nothing appeared different
Yet nothing felt the same
A warning once spoken
Cannot return to silence

It follows every step
Every decision
Every quiet moment
Between the noise

How do you build
Knowing the storm will come?
How do you plant
Knowing another may reap?

How do you stand
Between hope and consequence?
The future remained unseen
But no longer unknown

Its shadow stretched beyond the horizon
Touching places
No eye could reach
Still the work continued

Stone after stone
Word after word
Because some things are worth doing
Even when they outlive the one who begins them

The measure of a life
Is not what it keeps
But what it leaves behind