MAPPING THE CITY: DC Places, Part II Wendy Babiak   THE TIME I SAW RIP TAYLOR WHILE WALKING HOME FROM WORK OUTSIDE THE FOUR SEASONS HOTEL IN WASHINGTON, D.C. Late spring, so the sun shone golden on the tidy brick of the hotel while I cut south on 29th from M, headed to the C & O canal. He was going north, loaded with bags from the tony shops. His toupee? Perfect. He wore a festive shirt, yet no makeup. His ruddy skin shocked me. Was it him? But the mustache: unmistakable. He didn't notice me, though I was still a hottie in my twenties. My then-recently dead dad would have said he had too much sugar in his tank. I mean, any man who wears that much hairspray...so I was free to stare. He looked flustered, rushed, miserable, beginning to sweat, and I thought what's the use of fame, however moderate? Though unnoticed by the rest, he seemed unaware of his good fortune, to be walking, alive and free, in that city, in that golden light. A pity. Down on the Mall the cherry trees tossed their bright confetti.   Wendy Babiak, whose first book of poems, Conspiracy of Leaves, was published by Plain View Press earlier this year, spent the first four years of her married life living in a basement in Georgetown (while her husband, a DC native, attended medical school there) and working downtown. She walked her 2.9-mile commute because it was faster than taking the bus and kept her spirit lifted rather than grinding it up into little pieces. She currently lives in Ithaca, NY but still makes it back to the capitol on occasion to visit family. Her website: http://wbabiak.wordpress.com.   Published in Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 2010.