Kewpie Doll

Amanda Harris
Jul 24, 2017 · 1 min read

You tried to curl
your face into a
smile so it would
resemble mine.
I have a doll smile
that I hated from
ten on, when my cousin
asked me to go on
a diet. I prayed for
it to resemble my
cousin’s and I prayed
for skeletal feet
and here you are,
paying for plastic
surgery so your
smile would resemble
mine. I wanted a
face that unbuilt
nations and I wanted
to be invisible in
audition rooms.
I don’t know where
this poem is going
to go. I just know that
I thank God for my
round face now that
I know just how much
money you’ve spent
trying, for five minutes,
to resemble me.

— The New Yorker

Amanda Harris

Written by

Author of Rage (Penguin, 2015). Author of #bagpipecity (Penguin, 2016). Author of No Surrender (Penguin, 2017).