Lorraine, The Cat

A Story From A Third Grader’s Diary

Grandma’s friends don’t use first names
They call each other Mrs.
Mrs. Gates,  Mrs. Webb, Mrs. Farley  –
All except for Lorraine
even though she’s grown too
With kids and her own house.

When the women talk about Lorraine,
they whisper
(they think that I don’t hear)
about how she’s “raising those children”
or where she got the money for her house
or how she dresses.

I heard Grandma call her a cat
She does look kind of like a cat –
A playful yellow cat
With her sparkly green eyes
and her hair tied up in a purple scarf –
like a tail.

They said she’s showy.
She’s a show all right — like a movie dancer.
When she walks down the street
in her sundress belted tight at the waist
her full skirt bounces and swings
like a band is playing.

Sometimes Lorraine has parties,
that go till way past my bedtime
her house all bright with lights
and loud with laughing people
who don’t live on Petain Street
and
Sometimes she’s married.