I got drunk by Stephen House

I got drunk at a party a few weeks ago and I haven’t been drunk in years / I’m fucked if I know how it actually happened as it is not something nowadays I choose / I have one or two beers occasionally and maybe a wine if I’m out for dinner / as knocking back plenty was how I rolled long ago and then I let it go for good / I’ve thought well about how the drunk party happened as the old man I nearly am / and am still lost for reasons how I let it occur though I have a maybe hypothesis / I’ve had the toughest two years I’ve ever had in my life though I won’t bother explaining why / and quite possibly the feeling associated with the wine was related to easier days / I went past the two or three drinks and it slid into five or six / which led me to a place like my crazy youth partying all over the world / an escape from the shit I’ve been dealing with could’ve been the reason for it / or maybe what happened was I got drunk to remind me why I don’t get drunk anymore //       

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 had a play run in Spain from 2019 to 2022.