We went out to Arlington early and saw Robert E. Lee's home and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and Mount Vernon where George Washington lived. That was on Sunday and we just got back to the train station in time for me to catch the train.

I told Uncle Richie and Uncle Jay what a good time I had and Uncle Richie said maybe I better not tell Mother and Dad about him and Uncle Jay living together and maybe I could come back to Washington to see them next year if I didn't. Uncle Jay said be sure to look him up in five or six years and maybe he could fix me up down at the State Department and Uncle Richie said oh, shut up, Jay. Half the time I didn't know what Uncle Jay was talking about but he was real funny. I think maybe he was making fun of me but I didn't mind

much.

I told Mother and Dad what a good time I had but I let slip about Uncle Jay living with Uncle Richie and Dad got me to one side and made me tell him everything I could remember about what happened at the apartment and while I was in Washington. Then Dad said I couldn't ever go back to visit Uncle Richie and I cried. Dad said someday I would understand but I don't see why.

After I went to bed that night, I heard Dad and Mother arguing. He asked her did she know about Richic and she said what did he mean. And Dad said your brother Richie's a homo and Mother cried.

I looked up the word homo in the dictionary the next day and it means man so I guess Uncle Richie is.

I love Uncle Richie. He taught me how to throw a curve.

I THOUGHT I SAW ...

I thought I saw my late espoused Douglas

Leaning across the bar, so debonair, The angle of his cigarette-the Tshirt, yellow-

As gay as May. The same conniving

stare,

The jaunty eye, the lips for easy hello,

The mouth so generous and geans

so spare.

I thought I saw my late departed Douglas

Standing across the bar, so thin and fair;

God's dusty mill boy, worn exceeding small,

by Brother Grundy

Ghost boy. Gone boy. You who

never were.

What does he here I thought? Released from Limbo?

(He gabbles now with guys with arms akimbo.)

Whose dreamer now I wonder? Now whose boy?

Blue smoke-Blue geans-True bluemood Boy.

(But we were half a universe asunder.)

Someone pays for drinks. They nod: They smile:

They go. And I, undouglassed, sit on a while.