RECLAIM THE NIGHT

(Peggy Seeger)



Though Eve was made from Adam's rib

Nine months he lay within her crib

How can a man of woman born

Thereafter use her sex with scorn?

For though we bear the human race

To us is given but second place

And some men place us lower still

By using us against our will



If we choose to walk alone

For us there is no safety zone

If we're attacked we bear the blame

They say that we began the game

And though you prove your injury

The judge may set the rapist free

Therefore the victim is to blame

Call it nature, but rape's the name



CHORUS: Reclaim the night and win the day

We want the right that should be our own

A freedom women have seldom known

The right to live, the right to walk alone without fear



A husband has his lawful rights

Can take his wife whene'er he likes

And courts uphold time after time

That rape in marriage is no crime

The choice is hers and hers alone

Submit or lose your kids and home

When love becomes a legal claim

Call it duty, but rape's the name



And if a man should rape a child

It's not because his spirit's wild

Our system gives the prize to all

Who trample on the weak and small

When fathers rape, they surely know

Their kids have nowhere else to go

Try to forget, don't ask us to

Forgive them -- they know what they do (CHORUS)



When exploitation is the norm

Rape is found in many forms

Lower wages, meaner tasks

Poorer schooling, second class

We serve our own, and, like the men

We serve employers -- it follows then

That bodies raped is nothing new

But just a servant's final due



We've raised our voices in the past

And this time will not be the last

Our bodies' gift is ours to give

Not payment for the right to live

Since we've outgrown the status quo

We claim the right to answer "No!"

If without consent he stake a claim

Call it rape, for rape's the name



(CHORUS)



Copyright Stormking Music

@feminist @rape @abuse

filename[ RECLMNIT

MC

===DOCUMENT BOUNDARY