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

Memorial outside Atlanta spa. Photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA
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.
Wow! Thank you.
Very right-on and powerful and no-holds-bar.
A speaker of truth on how Asian women are targets in being used and abused.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Thank you Genny.
Powerful!
Thank you.
Kudos, Genny. Very powerful and devastatingly eviscerating of that misogynistic racist in Georgia..
Genny – as always you never lose your fire and anger!! Love it.
🤛😎🤜🎉🌷🌹💃