These two were truly innocents—
She liked a game called House.
He loved to roam the open fields.
She had blue eyes, a complexion as pure as air
And hair that was a pretty cornsilk yellow.
His sandy, unkempt hair blended
With freckled arms and face and hazel eyes.
They gravitated toward each other
As trees reach out to the sun.
Holding hands, they romped across the fields,
Sometimes skipping as if in a game.
One time she impulsively kissed him.
So startled was he that he pulled away
Reminded of that aunt who always kissed
With warm wet kisses.
Yet, this one kiss was so different.
He leaned across towards her and quickly
Pecked her with the lightest of kisses.
Abashed, he hugged himself.
But she just laid her blond head on him
And quietly said, “I love you, Joe.”
#FirstLove #PuppyLove
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“I KNOW THIS COAST” was first published in RipRap, 1981. Strolling along the bluff above either Laguna Beach or La Jolla, California, the author was inspired to write this poem.
REFRACTIONS—memoir poem by Kathleen Roxby
“BELMONT PIER WITH FISHERMEN, Circa 1960,” is a memory from the author’s teen years. The featured pier did have a bait shack, but no fast food was sold there. She borrowed that idea from the Fisherman’s Wharf located elsewhere in the harbor. This poem was first published in Art/Life, Vol. 20, No. 1.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“Orange Days” was written as a part of the author’s color inspired series “Singular Prism.” The orange days of summer for the author were miles of orange groves through which her family drove on their way to Disneyland. As she wrote this, she also thought of her mother’s shared memory of the wonder of receiving an orange in the middle of a West Virginia winter tucked into the toe of her Christmas stocking.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021
State Fair Memory, No. 14
With balloon string tightly gripped
In his fingers, candied-apple sticky,
A speck of cotton candy glued to his nose,
He stumbles on his short legs
Over the pebbled path
Till he stops with a shriek of joy,
His cinnamon-red tongue extended in delight
As he bends to dig his baby nails
Into the slick guts of frog remains
Smashed by a random tire in the parking lot.
His mother plucks him from his discovery.
He reaches over her shoulder
Toward the froggy mess
Before I lose sight of them
As they sift into the crowd,
His screams fading beneath the bursts
Of sound from the carnival left behind.
#StateFairs
AND I WAS SEVEN
Sounds of Summer slumbered
in the gold light valley
Sun-fire burned the glass-blue sky
Green hills drowsed
down to sparkling river’s edge
Nearby and far-off
silent trees with listening leaves
held hypnotic in the welded noon-power heat
Breathless and dream-drowned
the sounds of summer slept
in the gold light valley
I never knew how close
my ear had pressed to heaven
that day when sounding Summer slumbered
in the gold light valley
and I was seven
#SummerPoem #NaturePoem
THE INNOCENTS
These two were truly innocents—
She liked a game called House.
He loved to roam the open fields.
She had blue eyes, a complexion as pure as air
And hair that was a pretty cornsilk yellow.
His sandy, unkempt hair blended
With freckled arms and face and hazel eyes.
They gravitated toward each other
As trees reach out to the sun.
Holding hands, they romped across the fields,
Sometimes skipping as if in a game.
One time she impulsively kissed him.
So startled was he that he pulled away
Reminded of that aunt who always kissed
With warm wet kisses.
Yet, this one kiss was so different.
He leaned across towards her and quickly
Pecked her with the lightest of kisses.
Abashed, he hugged himself.
But she just laid her blond head on him
And quietly said, “I love you, Joe.”
#FirstLove #PuppyLove
Author’s Notes
GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby
“AND I WAS SEVEN” was originally entitled “Gold Light Valley.” It began as the opening to a short story the author was working on. However, when she shared this opening with her daughter, she was told, “Mom, this is a poem all by itself.” So, here it is divorced from its short story and standing on its own. Though it was inspired by the short story idea, the images and feeling likely reflect the author’s own childhood in the Ohio Valley.
REFRACTIONS –a poem by Robert Roxby
“THE INNOCENTS” is a memoir poem appearing in his collection Reflections on a Lifetime. In his journal, the author notes this is a “1921 first encounter with a girl.” If he is writing about himself, he would have been eight years old. However, the girl calls the boy of the poem “Joe” which could mean this is about the author’s best and life-long friend, Joe Nesbitt.
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby
“State Fair Memory, No. 14” was written as an exercise in a poetry class the author joined to support a teacher friend. The class was given a series of unrelated words (some of which were supplied by the class members) and told to use all or most of them in writing a poem. Among other words included were some of these which appear in the poem: balloon, cinnamon, guts, cotton, pebble, frog, nail, scream. Searching for a title, the author decided that State Fair Memory was not specific enough and the scene described was hardly indicative of the potential of the subject. But if it were the last of a series, perhaps, it would make more sense—hence the tag was added of “No. 14.” It is included this month since many states hold their fairs at this time.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
Readers who write in response to one of the prompts listed each month in Splintered Glass, may see their work presented here on the last week of that month. Though poems are preferred, short prose work will also be considered for publication.
Guidelines for submission:
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021
SPLINTERS FOR AUGUST 2021