2021 Summer’s Sizzle Showcase Exhibit

Untitled #1 
by Chuck Kellum

Constant clicking buzz
 Seventeen-year cicadas
 Signal their cycle

No, No Stress Please, I Stress 
by Ndaba Sibanda
  
It is far much wealthier than wealth,
It is a happy heart’s bastion of health
In spite of life’s immaterial irritations,
Inconveniences and complications,
It enables one to shut out negativities,
And to accept rigors and eventualities.
  
Peace, inner peace is crucial, I stress!
A spirit free from the effects of stress,
Isn’t being at peace healthy and ideal?
The mind operating at an optimal level?
Dealing with life’s anxieties and loads
Does not always entail potent swords
  
If peace of mind were a seed, a bud
Wouldn’t we plant it in our backyard?
And water it first in our pictorial yard?
For peacetime is a game of psychology
A head needs to cease hosting acrimony
Before it becomes a fortress of harmony.
  
Peace of mind is a conscious application
That comes with humility, honesty & action,
We need to bow and listen to it from within
For peace of my mind’s first port of call is within,
It is a dignified and cautious state of mental calm,
It is a deliberate state of emotional and spiritual calm.

Clouds
by Chuck Kellum
  
 I like clouds.
  
 Especially big, fluffy ones
 That float in a light blue summer sky
 Like a snow-white and silver armada
         on a great sea of azure,
 Protecting the sovereignty
 Of those at work
         and those at play
 Nearby.
  
 Yet, despite their mission,
 They seem to go unnoticed by all
         but the idle few
 Who,
 Lacking both
         the desire to work and
         the energy to play,
 Are left with nothing to do.
 (but look up) 

Untitled #2
by Chuck Kellum

Frogs and crickets sing
 Fireflies choreograph sparks
 I gaze at the moon

Flip-Flops
by Sarah E. Morin
(accompanying image created with Canva)

The flip-flop is a flimsy shoe
useful only for folks who
wear them on a short-term basis
such as the twenty-odd paces
from the car door to the beach
and promptly kick them out of reach.
Perhaps they are the number one
symbol of vacation fun,
colorful and quick to pack,
but consider their drawbacks:
the flip-flop makes the graceful flounder
on soles thinner than a quarter pounder.
Your balance’s off, your nerves are edgy.
They give your toes an awful wedgie.
As a fashion merely conventional.
Its personality two-dimensional.
Backing up in them’s untoward.
Flip-flops have one direction: forward.
Every step a sole-crushing smack,
incessant sound of whack! whack! whack!
When about the seaside gadding,
your feet may wish for thicker padding,
for despite their best intent
you’ll feel each square inch of cement
down hot sidewalk to snowcone
the flip-flop jars you to the bone.
 
To lousy footwear, I say, “Stop!”
I’ll flip the script on this shoe flop
and give my toes a well-earned treat
exploring sand with my bare feet.

 untitled #1
  by Alys Caviness-Gober

 under the moon’s glow
 fullness envelopes my soul
 the branches clasp hands
  
 memories float past
 random thoughts turn like leaves
 a book falls open
  
 roaring waves crashing
 echoed warmth flooding within
 wedding rings glisten

Midsummer’s Come
by Chuck Kellum
  
 The wheat is in,
 The corn is high,
 And the old cows graze
       on grass that’s dry.
 The hay is stacked,
 Haze veils the eye,
 And my loyal dog
       lies idly by.
  
 I find myself
 In thoughts
         that wander
 Across the fields
 And roaming
 Yonder,
 Through pasture 
                and woods
 And along the stream . . .
 I lose myself 
 In
       a 
           slow-
                     paced 
                                 dream . . .
  
 Midsummer’s come.
 High listless sun.
  
 And it’s time to work on the fences. 

I Marvel At Better-than-movies Action-packed Moves
by Ndaba Sibanda
  
How do they do all this? Where are they from? – I’ve no answers
A virtual walk sees me stumble on a video that features dancers
  
Their dancing is so spirited & springy that I call it exertainment
A portmanteau word derived from exercise and entertainment
  
Exercises keep our bodies in shape as they also boost our health
We use planks, squats, single-leg deadlifts to raise the strength
  
Around the muscles as the body burns the calories: the road
To ultimate fitness is a routine that is well-ordered and bold
  
When I watch the video of the dancing troupe, the energy
And finesse that it exudes – not forgetting the synergy –
  
I see the quintessence of a theatre, what entertainment!
I see a gymnasium, I swear there is sweat & commitment  
  
 https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=322835509211398

Boat Rides from Hell
by Patience Young
  
 Boat Ride from Hell #1:
             Because of our love of music, my ex-husband, Bill, and I belonged to several different local musical organizations. In one of those, we met a guy who raced small motorcycles, known on the circuit as crotch rockets. Personally, I never followed the sport, but when we met him and his wife, they invited us to their unassuming house on a local reservoir, where they also had an unassuming boat. I say unassuming because the guy was rich. Not rich from racing but rich from family money. He raced for fun. I don’t understand how you could call breaking every bone in your body multiple times fun, but he did.
             The night we went to his house, the wife and daughter weren’t home. Gene, the motorcycle racer, showed us his trophy cases with at least fifty big trophies for racing, as well as his bikes. Then he asked if we wanted to go out in his speed boat. 
             “Of course!” we said.
             It was probably around six on a summer evening when we shoved off from Gene’s pier, expecting to be out for maybe an hour or two at the most. We were talking and drinking beer and I can’t swim very well but Bill could swim quite well and suddenly, the boat stopped. Dead in the water. Out in the middle of a huge reservoir. Gene checked the level of gas or whatever it is that a boat takes. It wasn’t that. He checked every fluid that he needed to check, and everything was perfect, so why wasn’t that boat going anywhere? 
             Just before the boat had died, a ranger had stopped us to ask if we were drinking. Of course, you’re not supposed to drink while boating, so we lied. We hadn’t been drinking much, anyway. While we were sitting there, we were wishing that the ranger would return, but he was nowhere to be seen. We were sure sober, then!
             Because I can’t swim well, I began to have visions of myself alternately dog paddling and floating to the shore in the dark, as it was by then about ten pm. 
             Finally, a pontoon boat came rambling along, carrying a family of four or five adults, all drinking. They had probably waited until the ranger had given it up for the night to take their boat out. Pontoons move slowly through the water, but they were at least moving, and we were not! At first, they laughed at us, but then they decided they would help us, after all. As it turned out, it was a brand-new pontoon, on its maiden voyage. What better way to break in their brand-spanking-new boat than to rescue stupid people?
 They used their rope, and, with Gene’s and Bill’s help, we were towed to shore. The entire time, Gene kept saying he couldn’t understand what had happened!
             When we finally got home that night, Bill was pissed. He said at least Gene should have had a rope! We found out the next time we saw him that he did - it was wrapped around the propeller!
  
 Boat Ride from Hell #2:
             I have always loved boats and water, despite not being able to swim well. For one of my birthdays, Bill surprised me big-time. We went to one of my favorite restaurants for a late lunch, along with several of our friends and family. The biggest surprise of all was the boat ride. Bill had reserved a pontoon on that same reservoir, yes, the one that Gene lived on with the crotch rocket trophies. A colleague named Jake and his girlfriend had come along that day. 
             Jake was the kind of guy that I call a work friend. I thought that we were friends, but when we no longer worked together, we were no longer friends. That probably happens often. 
             After the wonderful meal and gifts, everyone drove separately to the boat rental place. Jake was more of a worrywart than I expected because he kept looking up at the sky. 
             “Look at those clouds!”
             “Are you sure we should be going out, look at that sky!?”
             “Maybe we shouldn’t…”
             Anyway, some people chose not to go, but Jake said he was up for it, so we all piled into the pontoon. The slow pontoon. 
             We were having fun talking and laughing, but Jake was still watching the clouds. About the time we were out in the middle of the reservoir, he said, “I really think we should go back.” Then he started with the “We should never have…” but by then it was too late. Within minutes, the sky opened up. To say the rain came down in sheets is putting it mildly. It was a deluge; torrent; a spate, with lightning every few seconds. I’m surprised we weren’t electrocuted. 
             Pontoons are slow, extremely slow. By the time we got back to the dock, the proprietors were about ready to call search and rescue on us because we were the last to return. Jake called it the Boat Ride from Hell and swore that I had tried to kill him.
  
             Given those experiences, one would think that I would not want to get on a boat again. Nothing is further from the truth. I still love boats and water, and I still can’t swim well. I don’t want to have to dog paddle or float to shore in the dark or be out in the open water in a torrential downpour and lightning again, but I would take another boat ride in a heartbeat. 
             By the way, I wasn’t driving the boat either time. I’ve never learned how. Maybe I should. 
   

May, May Happiness Continue To Radiate
by Ndaba Sibanda

She had been hounded, headbutted by strife, 
Cheated by the moods, sparks & spins of life

Her challenges were many and various—spiritual, 
occupational, environmental, mental and financial

She was named May since that was her month
of birth, but what evaded her life were funds

It was in the month of May that she set out
on a life-changing path and gave it her bout

She sought happiness, health and holisticism
in spite of a hail of hellish winds and criticism

It was a daring, deserved and dynamic stride
to wellness that saw her life enjoy a real ride

Her life realized and relished a love for oneself,
hence she recovered her purpose in life, herself

Hers was a life metamorphosed into meaningfulness,
characterized by regular exercises and liveliness

and a balanced diet, a good sleep, a positive thought
and a holistic way to health that made her less distraught

Musical Inspirations
 by Alys Caviness-Gober

silent, dawn breaks hard
 time-lapsed cooling colors sing
 yellow rose unfurls

 clouds caress the sun
 like gently lingering notes
 slow-dancing sea grass

 rainfall spattering
 sting-slicing then subsiding
 Kokopeli’s dance

 storm clouds creeping in
 the nachtmahr’s weight unfolding
 the laundry flutters

untitled #2
by Alys Caviness-Gober
  
 inside each raindrop
 a swirling eternity —
 my clock chimes time’s up

The Future Is Here
by Ndaba Sibanda

Forests blanched and bawled:
We`re being bullied and baked
By vehement and vicious wildfires
This isn’t just about emissions and fires
Please save us, save our planet, your planet 
Think about what your grandkids will inherit

Untitled #3
by Chuck Kellum

Crouched behind the plate
 Ready for the next fast pitch
 I let go a fart