The Elders

They gave blue bonnet seeds and six-toed cats,
worshipped oddities, buried their dead erect,
bequeathed an irreproducible shade of purple
(withheld its alchemy), cultivated mangos
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.

These were their gifts to us:

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

They gave their light, their stories to other galaxies.