“To the Men Who Carried the World”
Today we gather in silence and song
To honour the men who walked the earth
With calloused hands and broken backs
But never once dropped the weight of love
To the fathers who rise before the light
Who leave home with sun yet unborn
Chasing bread through dust and traffic
To return when the moon keeps watch
We do not forget the silent ones
The stoic hearts who never said much
But in every lifted stone and fixed roof
Spoke volumes in sweat and sacrifice
To the fathers who held babies like glass
Whose lullabies were tired sighs
Yet sang them anyway
So a child might dream deeper than hunger
To the men who learned fatherhood on the go
Who never had role models except pain
Yet built warmth from what little they had
Turning lack into legacy
To the fathers who stayed
Even when their names were spit on
Even when the world mocked their struggle
Even when death lurked in every headline
We remember the ones lost to power
Dragged from homes in midnight raids
Branded rebels for dreaming too loud
Or believing too deeply in dignity
We light a candle for them today
Those whose children call their names in sleep
And mothers whisper their stories
Like psalms at the edge of dawn
To the dads who were too tired to cry
Who buried sons and marched on
Who sold shoes so daughters could read
Who swallowed pride for school fees unpaid
We see you
Not only the men with titles and photos
But the ones who stitched their lives
Into the quiet corners of survival
To the fathers buried in shallow graves
Their names erased by brutal hands
History may falter in telling your tale
But your children will carry your flame
To the stepfathers who stepped in fully
The uncles who fathered in silence
The grandfathers who became bridges
The mentors who turned boys into men
To the broken fathers
Who made mistakes but never left
To those who fought addictions
So they could hold their child sober one day
To the widowed
To the jailed
To the displaced
To the misunderstood
Today, your love is not forgotten
And to those walking still among us
Wearing age like a badge of courage
May your days be full of honour
Your nights of peace
And may the world at last
Learn to sing your name with reverence
Because fatherhood
Is not just biology
It is bravery
It is quiet thunder
It is a life poured out
And still returning home with something to give
here’s to you
Builders of memory
Shields against storms
The first and final definition
Of what it means
To love
Without condition