ready
after lunch
my eighty nine year old mother
asks me to hold a pillow over her face
and not take it off until she is dead
even if she kicks and struggles
she says:
i’m happy
i’ve had a wonderful life
but i can barely walk
i’m tired and ready to go
please help me
i say:
i can’t do that mum
i won’t
we cry
after a few minutes we laugh
so hard
that tears come again
the next day i go to see her
she asks me to strangle her
i refuse
we laugh
and then drink coffee and talk
about all kinds of things
including old age
living and dying
and legal euthanasia
mum has not asked me to kill her lately
i’m sure it’s because she knows i won’t do it
although we have laughed about it
my mother has a terrific sense of humor
she says i do too
i think got it from her
i will never be ready for mum to go
rock
i place a large rock on the footpath
and sit in a park to watch
a woman with a child approaches rock
child stands on rock and mother takes a photo with her phone
they walk away from rock
an elderly man with a ginger dog pass rock
man glances at rock and dog pisses on rock
they walk away from rock
dog’s piss on rock dries in the sun
two teenage boys attempt to jump rock on their skateboards
one boy does it successfully
other boy tries several times but does not make it over rock
he falls on rock and path
successful boy laughs at failure
they skate away from rock
a young woman with bare feet stops at rock
she sits on rock and lights a cigarette
takes out her phone and sends a text message
she stands and makes a phone call
starts shouting into phone and kicks rock
i think she is crying
she walks away from rock still shouting into phone
i go to rock and cover rock with flowers i picked in the park
i can smell dog’s piss and cigarette smoke
i leave rock and go back to the park
a man dressed in an orange gown passes rock
he stops and looks at rock and walks away from rock
he returns and places flowers on rock
lights a stick of incense and lays it on rock
holds his hands in prayer and walks away from rock
i go to rock and on my knees i worship rock
a rat peeps at me from under a bush near the footpath
i think he says something but i can’t be sure
rat and i stare into each other’s eyes
i cry and rat cries
we stop crying and smile at each other
i thank rock for my life
rat thanks rock for bringing me to meet him
rat can speak
rock is god
Stephen House: has had many plays commissioned and produced. He has won two Awgie Awards (Australian Writer’s Guild), an Adelaide Fringe Award, First Prize Rhonda Jancovich Poetry Award for Social Justice, The Goolwa Poetry Cup, First Prize SA Writers / Feast Short Story Prize & Second Prize Poetry at Sawmillers. He has been shortlisted / highly commended for: Overland’s Fair Australia Fiction Prize, Patrick White Playwright, and Queensland Premier Drama Awards, the Tom Collins, Robyn Mathison, Eyre writers, Mindshare, Rhonda Jankovic Poetry Awards, Di Cranston Script Award, and a Greenroom best actor Award. He has received Australia Council Canada and Ireland literature residencies, and an Asia-link India literature residency. He has seen his plays and poems published, including by Currency Press, Australian Script Centre, Australian Poetry Journal, Third Street Writers USA, Page, and Spine USA, grey border magazine Canada, The Blue Nib Ireland and many websites internationally. His poetry collection “real and unreal” was selected for publication by ICOE Press Australia. He travels widely and continues to perform his acclaimed monologues, “Almost Face To Face” and “Appalling Behavior”. His poem “ready” was shortlisted for the 2019 Lane Cove Literary Award Poetry Prize.