Kewpie Doll

As always, my grandmother made way too much food—now I’m laid out, pressed against the warm wood of her back porch among swarms of summer flowers and proud, plump tomatoes still on the vine. Those fruits might as well be Italian heirlooms, and my family’s future is just as red and round, borne in my niece Wren’s Kewpie Doll cheeks.

Notes

Top - Cherub cheeks, sweet basil, calabrian bergamot

Middle - New vinyl doll, summer blooms, sun-streaked tomato leaf

Base - Nana’s back porch