Of Memoranda

Handmade quality of parchment’s texture

draws the hand across its silent texts;

many written in elegant prose,

some in verse.

Noted passages recorded,

read against candlelight

by those with a devotion to knowledge,

vellum modes for the hungry to learn from the cooks.

Important first rubrics of:

ceremonies and rituals,

canons for mourning,

chants of priests petitioned by both king and vagabonds,

prayers of the living,

the wants of the dead

handed down to those most in need of gifts.

Languages from the ancient past,

doctrines to be absorbed in the future,

personal messages reflecting sweet talk,

colorful dialogue, extravagant promises,

main points inked as

barren rhetoric in a high-flown style.

All these,

evidence of the continuing attraction

of sheepskin and papyrus.