The Elders

They gave bluebonnet seeds and six-toed cats,
worshipped oddities, buried their dead erect,
bequeathed an irreproducible shade of purple,
(withheld its alchemy), cultivated mangoes
and rye, carved millstones, shaped bells.

We mine their discarded seeds and stones
from ancient dumps, steal clappered metal
from noble crypts, surmise they had the answers,
(closer, clearer then), find hints to what, where,
when, but only riddles for who and why.

Their elders gave light to the deductions that mattered.
Were they eating dinner when the light gave way
incinerating what might have been their greatest gift?

These were their gifts to us:

They gave us blue-bonnet seeds, six-toed cats,
an irreproducible shade of purple, mangoes,
rye, millstones, bells, hints, and riddles.

Their stories they gave to other galaxies.