We have a value worth more than a bottom line,

Of being treated unfairly and saying it is fine –

Value, from the Latin ‘valere’ meaning ‘to be strong’ –

Economics have forgotten our worth for so long,

We are nature, veins like river networks, kin to bee,

Inequality wastes skills and talent and destroys unity,

We have fundamental worth, not just for fair weather;

‘Competition’ from competere means ‘to strive together’,

Have we undervalued, miss-measured our lives?

No work will make honey if we have empty hives,

‘Capital’ was once counted in cows, sheep and corn

Now we are underestimated before we are born,

Wealth, old English for well-being, now a virtual matter

And our wisdom and enquiry negated as idle chatter,

We rooted beings, fruitful shoots of the tree of life

More than treasured roles of mother, daughter, wife,

You more to us than protector, bread-winner, son,

We drawn in all colours and forms since life begun,

Income cannot measure our intrinsic worth,

Ecologies of value protect us and the earth

Age, weight, height a number NOT a value,

We are and create value, that is the truth,

We are precious, life immeasurable as soul

Equal to loving brothers within the whole

We are enough, we are many, we are one,

We seed a better future now, may it come!

Antonia Sara Zenkevitch