the Daily Grind: June 2005 Archives

I was reminded of his closing paragraph as I brushed past three builders today. They weren't the pot-bellied kind, more the underwear-model kind; tanned, perspiring, incongruously foppish hair, stubbled, one of them hanging off the end of a smoke, in dark blue cargo pants, boots, tool belts and nothing else. I didn't really check my wandering gaze until I realised that one of them was looking me in the eye -- the other two were cruising some mini-skirts across the road -- and almost certainly recognising exactly what it was I saw. His eyes; they were a bright and beautiful steely grey-green, and an immediate reminder of the handsome eyes I see as I close my own each night.

No abuse though; he seemed to take in the unspoken approval civilly, which was cheering. The unimaginative or bitter might simply conclude that he was gay, but I really didn't see it in his eyes. Besides, secure and sensible straight men make for a more appealing image in my mind; it adds to the ever romantic vision of how the world should be, rather than demoting something of potential significance to something that is simply easier to accept.