the golden mile By Stephen House

back then it was called the golden mile and golden it certainly was / with night-life trappings from end to end in nothing could equal Oxford Street / i was told how globally unique it was by a foreign one-night fling / and i suppose we all knew that and travelled to get there if we didn’t reside in Sydney / nights would start at the famous corner pub situated across from Taylor Square / the hottest place in town to meet and see what happened from there / by midnight and several well-priced pints the chat of where we were heading bounced / and there was no lack of places to go along that road so we let it take us to where it would / it was a queer street without any doubt at all but also had a hetero-not-sure sway / and i suppose that gave it an edgy element of anything at all might present / across the road from the meet-up pub the drag shows ran non-stop / the queens all headed into the lights providing fabulous show-girl entertainment / so began the one mile trawl from bar to bar of lets-stop-here for a beer / until about 1am when the dance club line ups began stretching on forever / the cover charges and spirits were cheaper back then even when you look at the different time / it was definitely easier to party for many and the socio-economic mix added much / but the golden mile wasn’t all glitz and glamour with plenty of secret doorways / leading up stairways to hidden cruise clubs and back rooms where the flesh play was in full-swing / i guess one can always pretend that gold never tarnishes but any observer saw the darker sides / addiction and desperate loneliness on a street that could also be sad and wasted / and those wobbling alone at dawn-night-end without trick they were sure they’d find / until the after-parties and day-clubs emerged and a pill or two kept things rolling / one day could slide dangerously into the next on the golden mile of always a party / for gold will always glow longer than silver and bronze if someone is still there to adore it / that shine of what happened on that pumping mile will always live on in memories / and no-one can take a pure gold time away if it existed and was one’s reality //

    

Stephen House has won awards and nominations as a poet, playwright, and actor. He’s been commissioned often, with 20 plays produced, many published by Australian Plays Transform, and produced nationally and internationally. He’s received international literature residencies from The Australia Council for the Arts to Canada and Ireland, and an Asialink residency to India. He’s had two chapbooks published by ICOE Press Australia: ‘real and unreal’ poetry and ‘The Ajoona Guest House’ monologue. His poetry is published often. He’s performed his acclaimed monologues widely. Stephen's recently had a play run in Spain for 4 years.