Parchment Deserts

  (A bit of paint chip poetry)                                        

        Parchment deserts

               Unroll beneath the candle-sun.
        Their sand-dune ridges raised;
                Their shallow grooves stretch in inky shadows.
        Across the grainy page,
                People and pens trace uneven lines,
        Footprints, printed black in their wake.
                               Parchment deserts
                          Colored creme; yellowing, aged, and wrinkled.
                                    The wasteland never traveled,
                          Unraveled scrolls still whisper,
                                     Stories, found in the folds of
                                                        Parchment deserts;
                                                                     The stories never read.