Zelda's Inferno exercise: softly spoken syllables

Zelda's Inferno exercise: writing from the opening line, "softly spoken syllables"

softly spoken syllables
whispered words
quiet conversations
between lovers
between parent and child
between the wind and the trees

softly spoken syllables
of sunlight falling on the earth
softly spoken syllables
on the breezes
the whispers of the dead
of generations gone by
the voices of those who went before
who opened the way
the pathmakers
how will you honor them? how will you pay them back?
what royalty do you pay those who tamed fire?
created language?
discovered music?
invented writing?
made numbers?
listen to the softly spoken syllables of history
the story of creation --
not divine and instantaneous but
mortal and slow, accumulative
the sedimentary bedrock upon which we stand
what do you pay in rent for that real estate
created by the hands of humans long gone?