By Stephen House
there’s a café tucked into a city nook
where i’d regularly be three decades ago
when i’m back this way
i always stop by
take my old table spot
float back
to life of then
i’d skulk here to hook up late at night
drop in heading home in wide eyed dawn
speeding crazy
crashing low
nowhere to go
needing somewhere be
boy dream soaring
hard morning pain
confused by not real
escape bad trick danger
a mate from that epoch appears
i nip in and order bitter blacks
bump into an italian with now dyed hair
who i knew from more than here
shakes hard my hand
recalls with worn grin
us in a dim city room with new-found trade
on the game together
a few times one year
i chuckle wry at street-wandering ways
he sniggers sly at what’s still not forgot
as years slide on
and ways of vanished youth
drift into psychedelic space
i give thanks to run-away eons and after dark lads
who faded out through fate and choice
or kept going on like me and some
riding faded spontaneous memories
jolted along by almost old age
struggling against blatant facts
of a dwindling now
hidden stories of bygone reality
steering the remembered route
back to this café of then
Stephen House is an award-winning playwright, poet and actor, with 20 plays produced, many commissioned, and published by APT Australia. He’s won two Awgie Awards, Adelaide Fringe, Rhonda Jancovich Poetry, Goolwa Poetry, Feast Short Story Awards and more. He’s been shortlisted for Lane Cove Literary, Overland’s Fair Australia Fiction, Patrick White Playwright, Queensland Premier Drama, Tom Collins Poetry, Greenroom best actor Awards and more. He’s received Australia Council Ireland and Canada literature residencies and an Asialink. He has had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia. He performs hit acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen had a play run in Spain for 4 years.
Hot Pot Magazine 