Stephen House - managing ok
Stephen House is an award winning Australian
playwright, poet and actor. He’s won two Awgie Awards (Australian Writer’s
Guild) , Adelaide Fringe Award, Rhonda Jancovich Poetry Award for Social
Justice, Goolwa Poetry Cup, Feast Short Story Prize and more. He’s been
shortlisted for Lane Cove Literary Award, Overland’s Fair Australia Fiction
Prize, Patrick White Playwright and Queensland Premier Drama Awards, Greenroom
best actor Award and more. He’s received Australia Council literature
residencies to Ireland and Canada, and an India Asialink. His chapbook
“real and unreal” was published by ICOE Press. He is published often and
performs his work widely.
managing
ok
my mum is ninety
and now in a nursing home
one of her joys is the visits she gets
but the home is in lock-down with the virus
spread risk
so we now chat most days on the phone
as a writer
performer
i make a living from shows
it’s been my work for decades
but my gigs are all cancelled indefinitely
so i’m not sure what comes next financially
to make ends
meet
i rent out part of my house
as an artist it gives some security
but my tenant’s a musician and his work’s
dried up too
so who knows what will happen from here
i shop at the
supermarket
quickly once in a week
as that’s what they advise us to do
but it’s strange there now as some shelves
are empty
and i saw two women fight over toilet paper
a play that i
wrote
has been touring in spain
and that’s exciting for me as a playwright
but the tour’s now cancelled because of
covid-19
though that means nothing compared to the
deaths there
i’m not
complaining
given the world situation
so far i’m healthy and managing ok
but each day the news seems to get so much
worse
and i can’t say that it’s not affecting me