Monologue

"My Short Skirt"
by: Eve Ensler

**This is a poem that I heard my senior year of high school when I went to a community production of "The Vagina Monologues." I remember being in awe of the things I had just heard from the three women on stage and this was the last thing that was read. I was crying at the end because I was so touched by what I heard. I thought that this was a very important poem for our time and I picked it as my monologue because it touched me so much.**


It is not an invitation
A provocation
An indication
That I want it
Or give it
Or that I hook.

My short skirt
Is not begging for it
It does not want you
To rip it off me or pull it down.

My short skirt
Is not a legal reason
For raping me
Although it has been before
It will not hold up
In the new court.

My short skirt, believe it or not
Has nothing to do with you.
My short skirt
Is about discovering
The power of my lower calves
About cool autumn air
Traveling up my inner thighs
About allowing everything I see
Or pass or feel to live inside.

My short skirt
Is not proof
That I am stupid
Or undecided
Or a malleable little girl.
My short skirt
Is my defiance
I will not let you make me afraid

My short skirt
Is not showing off
This is who I am
Before you made me cover it
Or tone it down.
Get used to it.

My short skirt
Is happiness
I can feel myself
On the ground.
I am here.
I am hot.
My short skirt
Is a liberation flag
In the women's army

I declare these streets,
Any streets
My vagina's country.

My short skirt
Is turquoise water
With swimming colored fish
A summer festival
In the starry dark
A bird calling
A train arriving in a foreign town
My short skirt
Is a wild spin
A full breath
A tango dip

My short skirt is initiation
Appreciation
Excitation.
But mainly my short skirt
And everything under it is
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.