Laura Grace Weldon

Laura Grace Weldon lives on a small ramshackle farm where she works as a book editor, teaches writing workshops, and maxes out her library card each week. Laura served as Ohio’s 2019 Poet of the Year and is the author of four books.

House of Giants

Imagine constructing your home
of behemoth bones, like the homes
found in Ukraine’s Dniepr river valley
from as long ago as 23,000 BCE.
Each one made from hundreds
of mammoth bones and tusks,
covered with hides for warmth,
centered around a hearth.
Imagine the power vested in you
by these giants as you sit, safe
and warm, carving with stone tools
while your children play.
Imagine being able to imagine
in that firelight, a future where
your clever descendants invent
the written word. Invent trauma care.
Invent megacorps. Invent war.
What might you say to them
from your magnificent shelter,
its ceiling arched with ribs?