Gertrude and Dotty

She is known as Dotty, her actual name is Gertrude, that secret she will take to her grave. Powerful people have always sought her out. Edison visited in the summer months, he proposed many times, but a man that would electrocute an elephant just to make a point could never have turned her head. Teddy Rosevelt visits, sadly his ghost has not lost any weight. He has an affection for her, they manage some careful lovemaking in the long twilight hours. She enjoys the half-light now, dreams of other voice that had wooed her. Sometimes she spies little Gertrude peeking over the foot of her bed, but she is not at all ready to permit her existence. Elderly hands cover eyes. Gertrude has taken on a life of her own, Dotty does not approve. The old lady has kept many a romantic secret. She has recorded her favorite erotic memories, she keeps these missives in a carboard box, under her bed. Perhaps with a tinge of remorse, upon the box lid, she has printed the legend: ‘For Gertrude when I am gone.’