Two Stars I Carried Before Dawn Poem by Martins Akhoeneto

For Olivia and Carissa

Before the world knew your names,
before your eyes opened to the morning,
you were already a song
resting quietly within my soul.

I carried you in dreams,
in whispered prayers,
in the unseen chambers of my heart
where a father's love is planted
long before a child's first breath.

You are not merely my daughters;
you are the two stars
that taught my darkness how to shine.
The gentle rivers
that reminded a tired heart
that life could still flow with beauty.

One day, you may hear many voices—
some soft like falling leaves,
some sharp like winter winds.
When stories surround you
and the past is painted
in different shades,
listen not only with your ears,
but with the wisdom of your hearts.

Time is a patient storyteller.
It does not rush to defend itself.
It allows the seasons to turn,
the clouds to move,
and hidden truths to find their way
into the light.

If my footsteps ever lead me away,
know that distance is not the measure of love.
Even the moon leaves the sky at dawn,
yet it never abandons the night
it once embraced.

Some journeys are taken
not because love has faded,
but because storms require quiet places
where broken wings can heal
and new mornings can begin.

I have given what I could give—
my strength, my prayers,
my hopes, my sacrifices,
and the dreams I carried
for the lives you would one day build.

My daughters,
never let the world steal your tenderness.
Do not inherit the wounds of yesterday;
inherit the courage to create tomorrow.

Be kind when you are strong.
Be humble when you rise.
Hold truth gently,
for truth does not need anger
to prove that it exists.

And if someday you search the pages
of the life I left behind,
find this written between the lines:

I loved you before I held you.
I loved you when I watched you grow.
I loved you through every season
that tested my heart.

You are my blood,
my legacy,
my unfinished poem.

And even when my voice becomes a memory,
may these words remain—

Two daughters.
Two stars.
Two reasons
a father's heart learned
the meaning of forever.