Village

 We built a village with hands, with woven desire for creating and maintaining. We built it with tools slightly broken, tools that have walked with us through nothingness. We stitched out tomorrow with eyes that have dreams that feel like they stole stars out of skies. We made sure to colour in tomorrow with hope.  

 We built a village knowing that even when you feel like you have nothing, you have something. And when that something is split into two, and someone else who carries nothing has a little bit more, the village grows. We learnt that two hands holding not just the body it frames build a village. We learnt that sometimes we have to offer what we think we have to hold on tightly so tomorrow can look better.

 We built a village with hands that are strangers to us, that become friends as warmth grows out of the extension of that arm to us. We built a village where our future is shaped by everyone turning into the type of artist that uses whatever remains of the colours they have stored away to make something bigger.

 We built a village when everybody knew that nothing should not be an option for anyone, that everyone deserves to be at the same space of fullness that we should share as if it's the only way we can create magic, 'cause this village is built with hands that know how to create something important, hands that know how to come together to clap and applaud a tomorrow we have built intentionally.

 So let's build a village where whatever you have and whatever I have can build something greater. Where tomorrow doesn't have to look just shaded, it can be colored in. It doesn't have to stay a silhouette or a skeleton for some, that it can be a full body that has everything it needs. So let's build the village

Note: this poem was comissioned in partnership with Philanthropy Australia for their 2026 conference, supported by Orange & Sardines.