Houses of Bones, by Janet Ruth

Houses of Bones, by Janet Ruth (USA) 2022

Houses of Bones

I. 
Fifteen thousand years ago 
middle of the Ice Age 
near what is now Kyiv, Ukraine— 
houses of bones. 
Remains of more than one hundred 
            wooly mammoths 
foundations—rings of mammoth skulls 
ivory domes—tusks arc to form a roof  
the walls—pelvic bones, shoulder blades, 
            jaw bones, leg bones 
the skins that covered them— 
            long gone. 
Within, what’s left of bonfires— 
            bones burned for fuel 
bone and ivory tools 
a mammoth skull painted 
            with red ochre dots and lines 
a map—inscribed upon a bone. 
Carrying heavy mammoth bones 
hunter-gatherers on the vast tundra 
            before history  before civilization 
built homes— 
            now piles of bones 
            scattered 
            studied by archeologists. 

II. 
Today in Ukraine 
houses in rubble 
arcs of missiles 
            trace the dome of heaven 
someone tries to redraw 
            a map—erase lines carved in bone 
bombs ignite new bonfires. 
Resurrection of a war so cold— 
            a new Ice Age. 
Whose bones will be carried? 
What heavy price 
            to rebuild homes now? 
Who will study these bones? 
What will they tell us? 

Janet Ruth

Author's note: In 1965, a farmer in Mezhyrich, a village in central Ukraine, dug up the lower jawbone of a mammoth. Excavations over the years revealed four prehistoric huts, constructed of the bones of 149 wooly mammoths.  Some large mammoth bones can weigh more than a hundred pounds.

This poem first appeared in Oddball.

Janet Ruth is a NM ornithologist. Her writing focuses on connections to the natural world. She has recent poems in Oddball Magazine, Tulip Tree Review, The Ocotillo Review, Sin Fronteras, Spiral Orb and anthologies including Moving Images: poetry inspired by film (Before Your Quiet Eyes Publication, 2021) and New Mexico Remembers 9/11 (Artemesia Publishing, 2020).  Her first book,Feathered Dreams: celebrating birds in poems, stories & images (Mercury HeartLink, 2018) was a Finalist for the 2018 NM/AZ Book Awards.   https://redstartsandravens.com/janets-poetry/