through her slant-eyes

that say there’s more to her

than meets the eye.

Her lily flesh invites

your touch.

No warmth of a body is here

No smooth skin as promised –

she is merely a rendering

of some flesh-and-blood Chinese girl

who really lives somewhere else.

or perhaps does not live at all.

Her long black coils are restrained with white ribbons

from breaking loose,

snaking down her back

and ensnaring some young man’s heart.

Naked

four times over,

teaching a lesson in morality,

See no evil (she blinds herself)

Hear no evil (she deafens herself)

Speak no evil (she is dumb, now and forever… and still she speaks)

Do no evil

striking a seductively Lolita-esque pose

she conceals the (thrice-exposed) blush of her inner self,

the little private rooms many men seek an audience in,

the nursery of little lives yet unformed.

Afloat in a sea of bright and seamless red –

the sign of her womanhood,

that undeniable announcement of maturity,

fertility.

Or perhaps, raging

Desire

enveloping her many images,

mirroring her own

Desire.

The same that is ignited in you

to possess her,

to hang her

On a wall of your home.

>>This is a poem composed for an assignment that required me to respond to a painting. I chose "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil & Do No Evil I" by Olga Polunin, exhibited at NUS Museums as part of the Arthur Lim Benefaction. If I find it online I will post a link, I think it's beautiful.<<

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