Frosted Panes--By Elaine George--Canada

Frosted Panes

When winter paints those frosty ferns on my windowpane
I find myself a little girl up on your lap again
In that old house, where you wove that coloured tapestry
With all the glorious memories of your life upon the sea

With weathered palm so deeply etched with every season past
You rubbed a porthole in the centre of the frosted glass
Where outside in splendour lie a winter­wonderland
As halos rose above your head from a pipe bowl in your hand

And there upon a rocking chair as smoke rings filled the air
We rocked across a sea of dreams wind tangled in our hair
To lands I’d never been before we stepped upon those shores
And through your eyes I saw each one and still I wanted more

The morning passed in dreams between two pairs of eyes of green
As the world outside held its breath in a sea of snowy cream
And when the chill of winter melted from the windowpane
The whistling kettle on the stove brought us home again

You held my hand and looked at me with that twinkle in your eyes
And told me you would be my Captain 'til the day I died
So when winter paints those frosty ferns on my windowpane
I find myself a little girl up on your lap again

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In loving memory of my Dear Papa 'Captain James George'

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Authors Note:

When I was a child of three, I went to live for a year with my Grandparents in Nova

Scotia. At that time, my Grandfather was a retired Sea Captain of a Three Mast

Schooner. He had spent most of his life at sea, taking lumber and coal to New

Brunswick and various ports in the U.S. and in the winter months, would carry on to

pick-up and deliver cargo in the West Indies. Although my time with him was short,

the memories we shared have comforted me through-out the years.

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Born in New Brunswick, Elaine George spent the early years of her life living in Lorneville (a small fishing village along the Bay of Funday) still inhabited by many of her family members.  Much of her writing is inspired by the memories of that place and those wonderful people.  She has published two volumes of poetry and is currently writing a novel entitled Out of the Darkness.  Many of her poems and short stories have appeared in magazines in both Canada and the United States. Currently she lives with her husband in Wainfleet, Ontario.