Blue Soliloquy vs. Xenophobia
- Blue Soliloquy vs. Xenophobia
Cases of mistaken identitythanks to a velvet robe with bell-shaped sleeves—
My love, a marvelous performance on the organ last night.
Are you a sister—which convent? Excuse me, young lady, are you Japanese?
What degree are you receiving today?
Would you please translate for us?Can you direct us to the chapel entrance?
I am not an organist, a graduate, or a nun.I am not the official interpreter or greeter.
The cobalt light streaming through stained glass is not a kimono.
I am an Asian female professor in blue regalia with bell-shaped sleeves.
I am foreign only to your xenophobia. [End Page 37]
Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of Phyla of Joy (Tupelo Press, 2012), Ardor (Tupelo Press, 2008) and In Medias Res (Sarabande Books, 2004), and winner of the Norma Farber First Book Award. She has also authored a novel, Sonata in K (Ellipsis Press, 2017), and a book of literary criticism, Anglophone Literatures in the Asian Diaspora: Literary Transnationalism and Translingual Migrations (Cambria Press, 2013). She currently lives in San Diego and serves in the university administration at Point Loma Nazarene University.
