What is  theme of "Girl Powdering Her Neck" by Cathy Song? The light is the insidesheen of an oyster shell,sponged with talc and vapor,moisture from a bath.A pair of slippersare placed outsidethe rice-paper doors.She kneels at a low tablein the room,her legs folded beneath heras she sits on a buckwheat pillow.Her hair is blackwith hints of red,the color of seaweedspread over rocks.Morning begins the ritualwheel of the body,the application of translucent skins.She practices pleasure:the pressure of three fingertipsapplying powder.Fingerprints of pollensome other hand will trace. The peach-dyed kimonopatterned with maple leavesdrifting across the silk,falls from right to leftin a diagonal, revealingthe nape of her neckand the curve of a shoulderlike the slope of a hillset deep in snow in a countryof huge white solemn birds.Her face appears in the mirror,a reflection in a winter pond,rising to meet itself.She dips a corner of her sleevelike a brush into waterto wipe the mirror;she is about to paint herself.The eyes narrowin a moment of self-scrutiny.The mouth partsas if desiring to disturbthe placid plum face;break the symmetry of silence.But the berry-stained lips,stenciled into the mask of beauty,do not speak.Two chrysanthemumstouch in the middle of the lakeand drift apart.