Name: Knot Body
ISBN: 9781988355214

Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch

Poetry. Literary Nonfiction. Middle Eastern Studies. LGBTQIA Studies. Disability Studies. Bringing together poetry, essay, and letters to "lovers, friends and in-betweens," Eli Tareq Bechelany-Lynch confronts the ways capitalism, fatphobia, ableism, transness, and racializations affect people with chronic pain, illness, and disability. KNOT BODY explores what it means to discover the limits of your body, and contends with what those limitations bring up in the world we live in.

Knot Body

Sabrina D. 

I remember my mother’s warnings, the ways she expressed joy when giving. My mother doesn’t act resentful but I still feel the resentment growing in her. My mother has always shared a room with many, shared her toys with many, shared her money with many, shared her food with many, shared her heart with many. I close my heart a little bit more, the way my father showed me, but I don’t know which method is worse.

 The number of times a loved one has made breakfast for me is innumerable. How do I redistribute the weight of those acts? I start making mental charts of what is given to me and what I owe, the list growing into an intricate spreadsheet, so long and complicated that I can no longer hold it in my brain.

I can write exhaustively about my body but if I’m expecting you to watch, am I looking for belief, or for you to see me in pain, up on the stage, twirling as you twist me and turn me in ways that make me ache?

The world is a stage, or so someone whose name I can’t re- member said, so why not show you my pretty little disorder, and open my body up for all to see. 

the thing about including and thinking about trans people when it comes to all aspects of life, especially in an exclusive medical system, is that it helps us stay alive.

& we are not just looking to be seen on tv, we are looking for our meds to be available and covered & we are looking to be seen and believed & we are looking for trans women of colour, for black trans women, to be uplifted to the front, we want access & safety and love & we want access to meds, to mental health support, access to transition in whatever form it takes. it is time for so many trans folks to stop dying in such large numbers.

disability justice is not one or the other, it is about connection.