…[Jay Reilly] dared to go bending round his accustomed comfort zone when he was a business exchange student at OP Jindal University.  The stalwart wiffle ball player…found himself at the literature festival in the heart of the Pink City of Jaipur one weekend afternoon. Ducking into a matinee, he met “my Aishyrwara” from the Goa seaside and visual poetry became a permanent part of his life.

Keya and Rory grew up in the glow of possibilities under the gleaming “Eternal Light” atop the Thomas Alva Edison Memorial Tower, a beacon [commemorating] invention in the Menlo Park neighborhood of Edison, the site of Thomas Edison’s first research center where the light bulb was perfected for everyday use. Nearby they played soccer and went ice skating in the winter with Tata on the sloping green of Roosevelt Park and fished there at the lake in the spring with Pop Reilly. When Pop shared his increasingly incredible fishing tales, Tata joined the siblings in their refrain, “Oh, really, O’Reilly?”.  Sometimes, the two grandfathers took them on outings together to argue politics and smoke cigars when no one was looking, a vice on which they wholeheartedly agreed.

In the secret, fun ways that siblings have while growing up, Keya and Rory formed their bond by stealing away quietly to shred the curves at Edison Skate Park. When school was out, the sister and brother loved summering at Island Beach State Park with its powdery dunes like mirroring Earthly clouds. They had acquired the penchant of Jersey Shore locals for collecting tee shirts from every fundraising walk, marathon, and shore event in which they participated. The both egalitarian and orderly duo characteristically enjoyed alphabetizing their growing collection, sharing their bounty and adventures via social media.  Like Sundance Film Festival vendors who handed out swag to social media stars for instant free advertising, Shore promoters realized the value of the brother and sister’s nearly 300,000 followers. They began to shower the two with tees, but the siblings would vouch for only those events that they had experienced themselves, evidenced by enthusiastic selfies or more often photos of other participants. They [posted] about festival highlights culminating in an annual prose poem on September 30th, the birthday of Union City and Princeton University boy, W.S. Merwin, former Poet Laureate and their spiritual twin in his love of poetry and ecology:

“Festivals” or #Downashore #Seeyoulateralligator

Swinging synergy, the Asbury Park & Red Bank jazz and country fests,
the Barnegat Bay Festival via Belmar’s Seafood Festival,
the Bradley Beach Lobster Fest and Brigantine Sand Castles,
car shows, classic and non, in Atlantic Highlands, Beach Haven, Cape May, Ocean City, Ocean Grove, Seaside Heights, Tuckerton, and Wildwood, all,
to follow summer…
Then taking in Fair Haven Day,
Keyport Jazz & Blues and Keansburg Gratitude,
the Lakewood Blue Claws annual tee shirt giveaway :),
Lavalette’s Christmas in July,
Long Branch’s 4th of July Oceanfest,
the Manasquan Classic Longboard Surfing Contest, and
Margate City’s Beachstock, celebrated.
The iconic Miss America and Miss New Jersey pageants,
North Wildwood blues and the NJ Devils Point Pleasant Beach Bash bands
and the harmony of Ocean’s Township’s Italian Festival
all synced with the rhythm of Ocean County Bluegrass and Sea Bright’s Dunesday.
Sea Isle City’s Irish Festival Weekend graced by the Friendly Sons of the Shillelagh,
bringing smiles, while the Shadow of the City concert in Seaside Heights
rocks on to the Spring Lake South End Surf Contest and 5K,
and the Wildwood Crest Sand Sculpting Festival.
Finally, the fall ProPlayer Football Camp and Charity Game in Toms River,
All forming the seasonal bouquet.

The college-bound siblings, serious sentinels who appreciated both the power and the beauty of the sea, guarded their fellow ocean lovers faithfully as substitute lifeguards in their most-prized tees with red crosses while working their way down the coast that year in a commemoration of the season. Serene blue skies enlivened with aerial banners like “Come n’ play with DJ Ray Thursday Nite” met summer’s lingering twilight along the coast.  The twins’ sometime inland ventures included seeing the Quixotic balloonists at their fancied New Jersey Cappadocia, the Festival of Balloons at Solberg Airport in Hunterdon County.  The sunset “balloon glow” like a horizon of celestial fireflies was an inspiring scene in the tradition of aviator Thor Solberg’s first solo flight to Norway after he practiced blindfolded to prepare for traversing the heavens.

Off duty, Keya and Rory crossed wide beaches and swam until in their dreams at night they still felt the lulling sensation of the waves, their bedroom windows cast wide open for there was never enough of the ocean air for the two. Theirs was a true love of the sea.

The Moral Quandary of Heels
All Rights Reserved © 2013 Kathleen Helen Levey. “Edison” posted on “Writing New Jersey Life,” September 25, 2017