Touring the Doll Hospital

Why so many senseless injuries? This one’s glass teeth knocked out. Eyes missing, or stuck open or closed. Limbs torn away. Sawdust dribbles onto the floor like an hourglass running out. Fingerless hands, noses chipped or bitten off. Many are bald or burnt. Some, we learn, are victims of torture or amateur surgery. Do dolls invite abuse, with their dent-able heads, those tight little painted-on or stitched-in grins? Hurt me, big botched being, they whine in a dialect only puritans and the frequently punished can hear. It’s what I was born for. I know my tiny white pantaloons and sheer underskirts incite violation.