Jane Zwart

The House in its Wisdom

Are you depressed or euphoric? The house,
in its wisdom, seems to have taken advantage
of your moments of euphoria to prepare itself
to shelter you in your moments of depression.
—Italo Calvino, If on a winter’s night a traveler, 
trans. William Weaver

Sparrows nest under our eaves, but we see them only 
when the backdoor slams and they fly, handful 
of stones, from the tangle of a vine that is less beautiful 

when it flowers. We think of them when we run the dryer;
its updraft of clean-smelling steam vents straight through 
the quarrel’s house. These sparrows are not sweet. 

They shrill and shred the zinnias’ petals and shit 
on the kitchen’s window sills. Still their nearness 
feels like trust. I am not saying that to host a barnacle 

spiked with beaks makes a house an ark, but that the birds 
who chide us coming and going stay—if it is not a proof, 
let it be an excuse to believe our bungalow wise.

Back to Issue IX…

Jane Zwart teaches at Calvin University, where she also co-directs the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, and TriQuarterly, as well as other journals and magazines.