A Lost Civilization - Buckeye Creek Press, D. M. Brantley's "Down to the River"

A Lost Civilization

Sri Lanka’s islands hide a lost civilization in the jungle greens;
An inhabited coral reef now,
Once held the presence and activity of an unknown people.
Were they visitors who navigated to those shores
And left the crumbled monuments that remain?
Or were they the people whose boats used the wind currents
To carry them to distant places to discover from other cultures
The knowledge and skill of construction and building?

The ruins of this distant atoll
Suggest that more has happened on this earth
Than we (who know so much and have developed so greatly)
Have ever thought, imagined or dreamed possible.
As powerful, mighty and advances as we are,
We cannot explain some of the mysteries of how people of the past
Could have accomplished such feats of architectural and artistic magnificence
Without the aid of skilled instruments of modern technology.

Such discoveries have a way of intimidating us.
Just who do they think they are?
What right do they have to tear away their botanical cover now
And expose themselves to a world that knew nothing of their existence?
Why should this sleeping monument rise up to question
Our right of feeling that we are the fulfillment of all
O f humankinds’ achievements and intellect.
Such ruins question our own sense of magnificence and authority.

There is only one thing that keeps us from
Bowing down to the past great builders
And admitting that they are the advanced peoples of the earth:
We are able to ask with our head lifted high,
“Just who do they think they were?”