Free Saturday's Child by Robin Morgan Page B

being, the child ,
    who is both bottomless pit and impregnable fortress …
    â€”C OLETTE
    Dear Diary ,
    These are the first words I’ll ever write in a diary. Mommie gave you to me, the best of all the presents I got on yesterday, my 8th birthday. I will never have another 8th birthday in my life. Mommie and me had lunch just us two at the Plaza Hotel and we were given tickets to go to the opera last night to see Carmen who had a rose between her teeth and got killed.
    But you are best of all, Diary, because I wanted you and Mommie knew that and here you are. I love your shiny blue leather cover with the strip that has a lock in it and the tiny golden key that can shut you. Mommie is going to keep the key because she says I’ll just lose it and also she wants to check and be sure I write in you every single day and also so she can correct my spelling mistakes. Because she says a person never knows who else might look. I’m a pretty good speller and I think nobody would look if I had the key but then you never know and they could always just cut the strip I guess. It’s a wonderful feeling to write in you because your paper issmooth and slippery and the color of the cream I lick off the milk bottle’s round cardboard top. You are very important to me even if anybody else can look into you because a person never knows.
    Your friend ,
    with love ,
    Robin Morgan
    Dear Diary ,
    Mommie says she is glad I wrote down all the good things we did on my birthday. She says it will be a treasure for me to look back on when I grow up and remember how happy these years were. I’m sure Mommie is right because otherwise a person might forget these things when they get old.
    Today we got up and had breakfast. Mommie always has coffee and a muffin which is also one of her names for me, Muffin not coffee. So our joke is Mommie always has coffee and me for breakfast. Aunt Sally loves bagels a lot . I had hot cereal that I always hate. I hate cold cereal too. Anyway, then we got dressed and I wore the pink organdy with white butterflies aplikayed (spelling? Help Mommie!) on it that Mommie sewed for me (Mommie makes all my clothes, Diary, and she’s wonderful at it) and my black patenleather (spelling?) maryjane shoes with the straps I hate. Then Aunt Sally and me took the train into New York City (we live in Mount Vernon, Diary, which is called a suburb sort of) and went to rehearsal and then I had an interview which is why the pink organdy today and then we took the train back. Then there was school and afterwards ballet and tap classes with Mrs. Liccione and then I did my homework and practiced piano and studied my lines for tomorrow’s rehearsal. I should write more but I’m too sleepy. I almost didn’t write in you tonight but I want to every single night so I did.
    Your friend ,
    with love ,
    Robin Morgan
    Dear Diary ,
    I’ll tell you about me. I’ll tell it the way I’m supposed to in an interview.
    I started talking when I was only four months old and really got to talkingwhen I was eight months old and Aunt Sally says then I never stopped. I won the All American baby medal when I was six months old and was Miss Baby Palm Beach Florida when I was two. I had my own radio program when I was four and also I was on Juvenile Jury for two years. Before that I was a model and sometimes I sang and danced and recited, like Portia’s speech about mercy from Shakespeare. I like Shakespeare. I do not like singing. But people liked it and clapped when I sang “Mairzy Doats” and “Cement Mixer” and “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.” The only song I liked to sing was “You Are My Sunshine” because it’s Mommie’s favorite along with “Besame Mucho” but that’s in Spanish and I don’t know how to sing in that. Also I acted in a movie called Citizen Saint when I was almost seven. I played Mother Cabrini as a child. She became a nun before