BEYOND THE BODY

My Body
By: Lior Press

 

My body is a shape of cells and blood, muscles and bones

My body is sacred

My body is sacred with angelic skin that has never been touched

Soft skin

My shoulders

My torso

My feet

Bliss

Bliss of the unknown
 

My body is a shape of cells and blood, muscles and bones

            This shape occupies the same universal space that all bodies do

            My body, this shape that is composed of cells and blood, muscles and bones was occupied

            And yet with wide range of space, someone that was not welcome occupied my shape

            And yet with wide range of space, someone that was not welcome crossed their boundaries and occupied my space

            An illegal settler

            Imprinted on my skin, are foreign cells

            Invaders.

 

You see my body, this shape composed of cells and blood, muscles and bones, a shape that was occupied by someone that is not welcome,

does not fit this R-A-P-E mold

R-A-P-E.

Because its better to pretend like it doesn’t exist

Rather than saying it out loud, making it a lived reality

Rape mold

 

My body does not fit this mold.

This mold that it was some perpetrator in a ski mask

That I was in an alley

That I was wearing some slutty outfit

My body, this shape composed of cells and blood, muscles and bones was in my house

The occupier was my friend

And I, I was ashamed
 

My body is not a shape of cells and blood, and muscles and bones

My body is a secret
 

My body is not a shape of cells and blood, and muscles and bones

It is just bones

 

My body is a skeleton

A skeleton moving through the motions of life. Not living, just being.

Living in a world that’s full of rape, but not rapists

Where the word “rape” is tossed around like an ordinary word

But the experience will eat you inside[LP6]  out

From your intestines, to your muscles, to your delicate skin

It rots you

Rotting flesh, shriveled skin

Small space

Suffocating

 

My body is a cage

            Pressured to be silent but screaming , “she just wants attention”.

            But yes, that is exactly what I want. Attention.

            Attention for the 1 in 4 women

            For the 107 seconds, for the blissful girl turning into a walking skeleton

            For every second that counts.

            And here I am Jailed in, in my caged like body, re-experiencing my horror

            Horror of this secret that has been boiling within

            Ready to open

            For all to

            See

 

My body is not only a shape of cells and blood and not only muscles and bones

My body is my revolution

With the guilt lifted from the joints of my hips

And my mouth not mentally wired shut

My revolution demands spoken words of the cut up manikin’s body stuffed in a briefcase

It demands the anti-occupation of the female body as an object, as a sex symbol, as something that is anything other than the female’s choice

It demands the disgust with rape like boys are disgusted with my period

My revolution demands recognition of rape victims within society

Realization within my social circle

Acceptance with my self, because I, I am a survivor
 

My body is a survivor

My body, my body, my body,

My body, my body

My body is me.