HOUSE

A knock at the door. I open it and there on my steps is Parliament, wrapped against the cold. I lift Parliament, hold it against my chest to make it warm. There, there, you’re safe now. No one can harm you. I’ll look after you, my little Parliament, my frightened legislative one. I bring Parliament inside and unwrap the blankets. Parliament is scrawny, a lovely chicken, a clock-eyed baby, an institution. My wife warms up a bottle, tests its warmth with an elbow. Parliament is calm now, no bells ringing, nothing but clucks and murmurs. Looking up, its big eyes on me as if I were the world or an election. A Parliament of spit and gurgles, of questions, arguments, love, and feathers.

*

Gary Barwin is a Canadian and the author of the recent collection *The Porcupinity of the Stars* (Coach House). He can be found at garybarwin.com and serifofnottingham.blogspot.com

The text, HOUSE, first appeared in the anthology *Rogue Stimulus: The Stephen Harper Holiday Anthology for a Prorogued Parliament* (Mansfield Press) which was published to protest the second time in a year that our current government (now facing an election) prorogued (i.e. put on forced holiday) Parliament in a year in order to avoid addressing difficult issues raised by the democratic process. This government was recently cited for “Contempt of Parliament,” the only instance—ever—of this in the Commonwealth.