{"id":2497,"date":"2026-06-09T18:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/?p=2497"},"modified":"2026-06-09T18:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T22:31:09","slug":"9-summer-shards-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/2026\/06\/09\/9-summer-shards-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"#9 summer shards 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When our daughter was in elementary school she loved to go with us to the hardware store so she could collect paint swatch cards. At one point we used her collection to cover a small side table with all her favorite color names collaged under a piece of glass. She imagined her perfect job would be to name colors for a paint company. I always remember the smell of mixing clay, and the particular feeling of color created with each firing..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Blue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

when I was young, I wanted to name paint samples.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 varieties of blue like whispering night air, tragic
lake. whites like echoing eggshell,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 memory of light. yellow like nervous blossom,
hay in afternoon sun. purple like shivering mountain
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 laurel or green like air after rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

it\u2019s said light blue
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 will keep birds from building\u2014
they believe it\u2019s the sky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 but how could anyone not want to live in the sky?
even mud daubers
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 won\u2019t create their clay pots<\/p>\n\n\n\n

on anywhere colored like flight.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 disney paints buildings they want to hide
in bye-bye blue\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 the same color as the eyes
of boys who knew how to love me
if only I blended in<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 with their hands. when I was young,
I painted my room blue hydrangea\u2014
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cdare\u201d by the gorillaz played on my indigo radio<\/p>\n\n\n\n

& now when the song comes on
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 as I\u2019m driving my white car on the dusty backroads,
I remember the smell of paint<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 & summer light. my old flame-
point cat lying on the clear paint tarp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

all those places I missed\u2014
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I wouldn\u2019t notice until years later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Laura Villareal, in Poetry<\/em>, March 2023<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When our daughter was in elementary school she loved to go with us to the hardware store so she could collect paint swatch cards. At one point we used her collection to cover a small side table with all her favorite color names collaged under a piece of glass. She imagined her perfect job would […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rough-ideas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2497\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.catherinewhite.com\/roughideas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}