In the poem "Father from Asia," Shirley Geok-Lin Lim discusses the pain of growing up with a father and culture that represses her. When Lim says, "keep you in my sleep" (348), she suggests that the painful memories from her childhood are something that she lives with day to day. Although Lim does not suggest any physical abuse, the emotional scars left by such a strict upbringing can be just as damaging. Lim wrote this poem to get her emotions in order and to justify her reasons for leaving her family and culture behind. Lim may be hurt and possibly putting her feelings in words as a part of her healing process.
             When Lim says, "Asia who loved his children, who didn't know abandonment" (Lim 348), perhaps Lim is telling us how Asia treats her. She most likely grew up in a culture that does not allow for the women to pursue the own desires. Lim most likely was brought up in a world where the woman's job was to watch the house and raise the kids, leaving to pursuing ones personal desires was not even an option. Lim reinforces this idea when she says, "from whose life/I have learned nothing for myself" (Lim 348), she is expressing her feelings of repression. These low expectations could cause Lim to have a very low self-ideal, preventing her from attempting pursuing her personal desires. Perhaps Lim could not truly form how she felt about her culture until after she left. When she was living in this world it would have been the only thing she knew. Once she left her country and culture she becomes aware of her options elsewhere in the world.
             Lim most likely experienced emotional and financial poverty. This is supported by the poem when she repeats "poverty" (Lim 348) twice. Lim uses the image, "Large hollow bowls, they are empty/ stigmata of poverty" (Lim 348) to represent an emptiness in her life. One of the most important relation
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