Roads Not Taken: Writings on Queer Ephemera

Reflecting on relationships and encounters that went nowhere.

A long time ago, I read an essay written by a gay man that was, in essence, a musing about a what-might-have-been scenario, imagining what it might have been like had he talked to a boy on the bus that he thought was cute. I don’t remember who wrote it, nor do I remember what magazine in was in, but something about that piece resonated with me. It made me think about similar moments in my own life when, for some reason or another, a romantic encounter didn’t work out.

After a lot of consideration, I’ve decided to start writing a series of vignettes about the roads not taken in my romantic life, of relationships that didn’t work out, of one-night-stands with whom I’ve lost contact, lovers that drifted out of my life after the passion evaporated. These are little snapshots of romance, little strands of life that have wandered away from me but have nevertheless left an impression.

They’ll be a blend of fact and fantasy, of what actually happened and what might have. Some will be incredibly short, little more than flash stories, really, and others might be longer. I’m not sure, but I don’t think that length will always correspond to how long the affair itself lasted, but will instead have more to do with how much of an…