Club Le Pep by Stephen House

Club Le Pep is at is darkest 

its maddest

the meanest 

as one would expect it to be 

just before dawn

when the worry 

of those that seek 

is at its most agonizing 

eyes scan the room

i throw back a drink  

close off my mind 

and dance 

here in a club in Paris 

i dance 

with stranger’s eyes 

and solitary souls

a ghoul in a corner 

and a crying friend 

are you a friend

that friend of the friend from just before 

didn’t i meet you here another time 

another life 

don’t laugh at me

are you just another part 

of some funny game we play 

i dance with him and her 

and they and them 

i dance with nothing 

and all for more 

in Club Le Pep 

i dance for dance 

even when no one else does

i dance 

and i have spent 

a thousand lost nights 

in the Le Peps of cities 

in the universe 

of the lonely lost

like we are here

locked together 

by fear and hope 

the friend stops crying

and saunters 

on his floodlit stage 

to a pack of others

not unlike himself 

and i decide 

to stay at the bar

tonight

today  

not descend 

into that place below 

of tarnished joy 

where he and the rest

will soon go

there is no time in Le Pep

no night or day

no rules in wonder world

no restrictions or limitations

no dream impossible

the life of night is not all forlorn

i watch them shuffling

towards the stairs falling

fast and dark below

smile at some spinning hero 

who i think i loved  

once before

probably

or maybe not

throw back another drink

close off my mind

and dance

here in a club in Paris

i dance

Stephen House has won many awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s had 20 plays produced with many published by Australian Plays Transform. He’s received several international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts, and an Asialink India literature residency. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His next book drops soon. He performs his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen’s play, ‘Johnny Chico’ ran in Spain for 4 years.