By Aileen Keown Vaux
"American unhappiness has no history because history has to do with real events and not with a dream."—Charles Simic
1987
Hand-sewn, stitched with care, horrifying in its size, emblazoned with names, well-wishes, epitaphs, and sorrow, it covered the lawn where many had spoke on behalf of those who couldn't say a word. Once thought of as just a sundry thing, a single quilt expressed an eloquence only men could dream of having.
1988
The sculpted body of a man, twisting and contorting, his lathed muscles perfect against the backdrop of a blue Seoul sky, a man who believed in the precision of his body like a man who had found holy-rolling faith, who knew that centimeters separated him from perfection and suicide, who failed in front of the world to clear the edge. In his descent, the back of his head split perfectly as it hit the edge. He must have bled in the water. Into water that others dove. Only later, did his blood become a parable for the choices we make to keep ourselves hidden in the deep.
1993
Don't ask me. Just look at me. Isn't it obvious? I'll never tell.
1997
"Yep, I'm Gay." Three words made of iron. A nine iron wielded in the largest thunderstorm, on a course with no shelter and a broken golf cart. Nowhere near the clubhouse. Is it no wonder that lightning struck?
1998
Rural farmland does not grow hate. It's just that those who do not blend in have fewer places to hide. To be tortured, strung up against a fencepost, to suffer before succumbing to death at the hands of the hateful—there is no redemption in that. The best we can do, and it is little consolation, is to bear witness.
2004
Is your life like the L-Word? No way! Just ask my ex-girlfriend's best friend whose girlfriend is best friends with a woman whose nanny used to date my friend, but is now dating the woman's ex, who, by the way, is friends with another ex.
2005
Two cowboys walk into a tent. Guess what happens next.
2006
Mr. Phelps, if God hates fags, he hates you more.
2009
A corridor of same-sex marriages opens in the Eastern seaboard; Iowa becomes an island unto itself. California? A fractured state belying it's history of quakes. Unions become the topic of The Union.
Aileen Keown Vaux, who lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minn., can be reached at keownvam@gmail.com .