@ary = ('item1:value1:text1', 'item2:value2:text2');     
for (@ary) {
    push @flibble, [ split /:/, $_ ];
}

for (@ary) {
    push @flibble, \(split /:/, $_ );
}

# then 
for (@flibble) {
    print "row : @{ $_ } \n"; # to test
}