"I Call You Body" by Eve Ensler
1/8/2017
Each year Eve Ensler pens a new piece to be incorporated into that season's V-Day Benefit Productions. This year, her piece I Call You Body honors the sacred and valuable work of women around the world, in all its forms, by demanding safe, violence-free workplaces as a part of the 2017 Spotlight Campaign on Violence Against Women in the Workplace.
I Call You Body
I call you bellies and mouths and breasts and
cunts and hips and bums and thighs
I call you muscle blood cells sinew saliva
I call you flesh bone biceps and back
I call you bodies of women
laborers
Bodies of nurses and servers
Farmers and mothers and
caregivers
Bodies that clean up your mess
And wipe your ass
Put salve on your bed sores
Serve your pancakes and bad coffee
At 3am
Bodies that spend each day
loving your kids so you can travel
And give speeches
Bodies that sew the sleeves on your fancy blouses
sweep the floors of the cafeteria where your children learn.
Devoured bodies
Invisible bodies
Unpaid bodies
Bodies that carry 50 kilo sacks of cassava, rice and sugar cane
Barefoot in slippery mud
Bodies who curve now
Bodies who strain
Bodies who bend
Bodies sold over borders
Bodies forced to sleep
in backs of trucks
in dog houses
Under TVs
Migrant bodies
Hungry Bodies
Bodies coerced into buildings about to collapse
Bodies scratched, grabbed, choked punched killed
Exposed to unwanted
unexpected
chemicals
hours
penises
No gloves no mask no protection
From the sun
Or the boss or foreman or
The president
Bodies forced to stand
For hours
Pay docked for peeing
punished for pregnancy
Bodies maimed and shamed
bound and cut
stoned and burned
invaded and degraded
bodies taunted, threatened
bloodied and torn
bodies in the field de calzón
the field of panties
bloody panties
Bodies raging
Bodies ready
Bodies that will not be silenced
or contained
Bodies
finding each other
Bodies
moving
dancing rising
spinning at tyrants and predators in chief
stomping at those who divide us and through
the divisions make us less and weak
reaching towards those who are slandered,
slaughtered, attacked, bullied in the streets
resisting all the bombs the corporate hit men are preparing to unleash
Bodies saying no to your arrogance
no to your hate
Bodies breathing deeply into every
sacred passageway
Bodies dancing safety
dancing freedom
dancing sexy hot
livable wage
dancing dignity integrity
Dancing to feel my body
to know my body
and to touch the outer and inner parameters of yours
I call you body
Temple
Tempest
Rejoice in our bleeding
Revel in our heat
Dance into this landscape
Dance into this dream
Dance into the lifetimes of bodies
found underneath
Dance til I’m oiled,
Dance til I’m liquid,
wild and wet
Dance til I’m ready
Dance til I’m healed, naked
Dance til I begin to see
Dance til I’m back at the beginning
My body is the first line of the new poem
It’s the sacred yes in the face of your doubt
It’s the lap you can fall in
It’s the line you cannot cross
it’s the holy flesh you can trust
My body is every body that says no to
Rape
Rape of our lands
Rape of our rights
Rape of our daughters
Rape of our life
Our life our life
Bodies who will not obey
Who will not be governed
Who chose generosity over the state
Whose country is flesh
Whose flag is bone
Who have a logic and language of their own
Beginning to find a rhythm that cannot be stopped
a step that can be repeated and shared
We have to dance now
do you hear?
We have to dance for our lives
We have to dance for the earth
We have to dance for our sons and
daughters
We have to dance the new world
Can you move your feet?
Can you roll your hips?
Can you lift your arms?
Can you flip your booty?
Can you let out a moan?
from your belly (moan)
from your heart(moan)
from your vagina (moan)
Can you call your body
Call your body
Can you call our bodies home?