Written piece
Threads of Connection
Hannah Southcott
Australia
About this piece
In Threads of Connection, the writer reflects on what it is that binds a community together. The constant maintenance required to build a village, to nurture humanity and to make the world a place people want to live in.
Threads of connection
They hang by a thread
Each strand fine as gossamer
Glinting in the sunlight
Beautiful and fragile
Each day I cast my threads
One to the postman
One to the cashier
One to my mother when she calls
Stitching together the fabric
Of my community
Weaving the tiny fibres
Of connection
I catch the lines
Floating towards me
From my lover
From my belly dancing teacher
Twisting these delicate ribbons
So transient on their own
Binding them together
Into a sturdy, hardy cloth
Strands snap, perchance
Or oft drift off unseen
Disappearing on the breeze
Lost forever in the fragrant air
The cloth degrades
As fast as I can weave it
Here a tear of misunderstanding
There a fray of loneliness
An endless daily task
Of weaving, of sewing
Of stitching together
The people that I love