Aromatherapy – A Poem by Genny Lim

Is it not enough to sew your jeans?

Is it not enough to launder your

shirts or cook your favorite cuisine?

Is it not enough I melt your sore

and aching muscles with the scent

of jasmine or oil of sandalwood to

titillate your fantasies of conquest?

Do I trigger your lust with the

suppleness of my small hands?

When I rub the acrid jungle of

hair over your sweating gland does

it arouse your savage fantasies?

When you see the neon sign

Aromatherapy Spa

 what sorcery ensnares you?

What lust locks your groin with

such abominable guilt that

nothing can quell it but murder?

What demon eviscerates your

manhood and dooms you to hate?

You think masculinity the sole

privilege of whiteness and the

calculus of a hot trigger the only

means to resolve your unholy

obsession so you satisfy your

addiction to yellow flesh with

annihilation till your rage

detonates in one bloody

hot Georgia orgasm

exploding every fetish

every assault of memory

every rape and massacre from

Hiroshima to Vietnam and back

 

No, it isn’t enough to sew your jeans

launder your shirts, cook your cuisine

or massage your impotence for tips

In one final spree, did you think

you’d break free?

The mirror’s shattered

Your beard’s all wrong

You thought you were strong

But you still don’t matter

 

Now you’re caught

in the gauntlet of

condemnation

legs parted like

a pig at slaughter

your white meat

trembling under

the hot spit of

craven prisoners

lying in wait

for you

Author’s Bio:

 _{Genny Lim  is author of the seminal play, Paper Angels, about Chinese immigrants on Angel Island and five poetry collections, Winter Place, Child of War, Paper Gods and Rebels, KRA!, La Morte Del Tempo, co-author of Island: Poetry and History of Chinese Immigrants on Angel Island, winner of the American Book Award and the anthology of Senior Asian American memoirs, Window: Glimpses of Our Storied Past. Her activist voice finds expression in diverse performance poetry and music collaborations, such as  Don’t Shoot! Requiem in Black, dedicated to Black Lives Matter, which premiered at SF Jazz Center in 2018 with Francis Wong, and rapper, Equipto.}