Member Poem

Gazing with his mouth wide open towards a sullen evening sky dotted with jet black clouds
Geoff Wild shakes, weeps and sighs.
He was on his knees on this grass-strewn, unkempt graveyard on the outskirts of his native town. 
Two years later and her memory still intrudes in unexpected moments. 
“Still so vivid.  Is this a nightmare…..some  trick of the light or just another passing dream?
The Passing Of A Velvet Heart.”
Geoff's thoughts almost choking him.                                                            Streams of emotion flowed down his face like someone who had just seen a tragic film.
Violet or Velvet heart, his pet name for his wife, had died and was still having difficulty coming to terms with it.                               
The sudden passing of his loved one had left this middle-aged man gaunt,  ashen faced and skeletal.  Wild’s troubled expression had become a haunted house of uncanny notions and strange  secrets waiting to flow from his water-logged eyes. Those circumstances surrounding Violet’s death were never clear.
Was it a death wish or an accidental fall from the edge of the flat roof on their elegant  townhouse?
Why would this lady of such excellent balance lose her footing in such a manner?
Death through misadventure was a colourful term used to describe what happens when there is no clear cause or explanation.          
“Cherish all those wonderful experiences we had.  Whichever one of us dies first.”
Violet once said.  Almost as if she had some premonition.
This was six months before she passed away.                      
A creepy dawning sneaks its way into Geoff’s thoughts.
An endless see-saw of conflicting doubts convulsed him as he dwelt in the cemetery.
Yet Wild fondly recalled that night they first met at the Skyline Ballroom.                     
The Skyline was a battered tumbledown barn cum venue whose allure was based firmly on its availability.       
The interior of this ballroom was hardly more enticing. 
The chipped hardwood floor and the dusty pale cream walls with paint flakes that  peeled off only confirmed its tenement status.                                                            It was known locally as the “Creaking Beam”” due to its ghostly acoustics and flickering lights.   Here in this spooky venue Geoff and Violet had their earliest encounter.                                          Wild remembered her radiant smiles and looping glances which he hoped were being cast at him.  The ripples of long dark hair, those apple blossom cheeks and of course her angelic aura stood out.                                     
On that night she wore a polka dot ruche dress, amethyst ear pendants and satin moccasins.
An opal choker completes the picture.                                  “Have I the gumption? The courage.
A faint heart etc.”                                                                      Geoff could hear his heart flutter as he did his tightrope walk toward her.                                                       Within seconds he was standing in front of Violet unable to control the tremble in his knees.
“May I dance with you?” Geoff asked.
Velvet heart’s hands formed a lazy arch and her dainty fingers curled inwards while she thought of a response.       
“Of course. I would be delighted.”                           Violet spoke in that pear drop tone which beguiled everybody who met her.                             
Geoff, the local journalist and writer was in seventh heaven.
They never forgot that enchanting song they first danced to, “Ballroom In The Sky.”
The song was performed by Valerie And The Blue Skies, a rock and jazz band whose name was partially influenced by the venue that gave them their initial break.            
They weren’t very big but had a cult following.
Something magical and unearthly happened every time they played that song on stage.  
Geoff could see how similar Violet and Valerie were in appearance.
They were mirror images of each other. 
It was frightening how easy it was to confuse the two of them in speech, mannerisms  and appearance.
The drole, quaint, humour.
Age even. 
Valerie was based in a remote enigmatic area outside town when not on tour.
She used to refer to songs as role plays in that banter between numbers.
“You feel as though you are a different person.
Maybe a member of the audience betimes.”
Valerie remarked. 
Other than that they, Violet and Valerie, were virtually indistinguishable.
Violet did admit to meeting Valerie casually and for autograph purposes but other than that  they had very few interactions with each other or so it appeared on the surface at any rate.
It seemed amazing how “ Ballroom In The Sky” with its airy ascending rock chords and jaunty jazz lines could draw Violet, Valerie and Geoff into a peculiar triangle.
The sudden moody breaks and abrupt silences built a momentary cocoon around the three of them which the rest of the patrons were unaware of.  
For the most part or at least superficially.
They, the three characters, weren’t always aware that  they were being sucked into a surreal threesome.
As for Valerie’s  top sideman....well, he was known as Silent Sam. 
He was the only member of this group that had any kind of track record or reputation.
Sam’s blue attire was in keeping with the band’s name.  He wore a large trilby hat tipped over his forehead sheltering his pointed face and pencil slim physique. 
Basking in the background one saw very little of him.
He, Sam, was short-sighted when it suited and though taciturn was also eccentric.
Practical jokes were his forte and the trademark impish grin was always an afterthought.
Then the usual quiet man mystery.                                     
“Yep ..Yup....or  Sure.“
These were the only asides from this oddball sidemen by and large.                            
He was prone to stumble and fall.                            Valerie had to indicate where things were to Sam in case he injured himself.
They would have words with each other which no one could quite figure out.                                                Theirs was a sign language of its own complete with slanted squirms and facial signposts.  
One often wondered if there was a deeper relationship between Valerie and Sam that others had yet to pick up on.                              
Leaving that aside, those Blue Skies airs would have been mere fillers without Sam.   This lonely freak seemed aloof but  by the same token these songs were peculiarly his.
“LOVERS TAKE THE FLOOR                                                                                                                                                       
FANCY DANCING WITH THE ONE THAT YOU ADORE
WARM EMBRACES AS YOU HEAR EACH OTHER SIGH
LOVERS TIL WE DIE
WE’LL BE DANCING IN THAT BALLROOM IN THE SKY.”
Every time that song  was played  Valerie, Violet and Geoff were sharing unwittingly a secret that would baffle even the most senior detective.
The startled looks, embarrassed smiles, were all part of this outlandish ritual.                             
Wild did try to piece all these recollections together.
“Valerie sure could croon those songs.  In a real hypnotic fashion.  Everyone in the dancehall was enthralled.  People would sway like ice skaters one moment, waltz in a swan-like manner the next and just as often rave in the isles like end of term teenagers.   The classics then came thick and fast.”  
Geoff whispers to himself in this solitary graveyard.
“JUST A PASSING DREAM...........STILL SO VIVID.......DANCING IN HEAVEN...... KISSES ALL AROUND....MAGIC HAND........A LITTLE BIT BLIND,  and of course “BALLROOM IN THE SKY”.  Other favourites included “ LET YOUR LOVED ONE  KNOW “ ( BEFORE SHE PASSES AWAY )  AND “ IN TWO MINDS.”                                                        Geoff and Violet would date and swing religiously to those fantasy songs every Sunday as their courtship blossomed.  
  “Ballroom In The Sky “ was always the highpoint of the dance with its mesmerising rhythms and choral mantras.
Like magic it weaved its way through every aspect of their relationship.  Its spell was like an invisible hand shadowing their each and  every move.                                      
This constellation of events occurred in a scenic nineteen seventies spot.
Despite its haunting vistas and backdrop of panoramic hills it resembled a ghost town.            Openings were few against an infinite  spiral of closing factories, bookstores with half-empty shelves and shopkeepers peering out of doors.
A crushing gloom weighed heavily on this once vibrant resort.                              
Ten years earlier it was a beacon.                                    “I shudder to think…...A jigsaw  puzzle of past events.”  
Geoff surveying the cemetery as if he were a stargazing prophet. 
He didn’t want to be heard talking to himself.
Such memories could have been taken directly from some movie script.                                                                    “Yes .. it was a hub that Skyline.  Like homeless drifters, the folk who attended lapping up and revelling in the bonhomie of gemstone tunes and spritely pulse rate beats.” 
The man Geoff communing with himself.         
They were fugitives all of them.  Be they fantasists, love seekers  or escapees from that heavy-handed void called the dole queue.                                                     Suddenly an unusual presence descended without warning.
“What the heavens is?    Snap…..ah it's a branch.”   Momentary jitters engulfing Wild.
He shook in concert with the overarching colonnade of brown edge green leaf  trees astride this burial ground.                           
An eerie rustling dewdrop tiptoe now caressing Geoff’s ears.                                
”Up there somewhere Velvet Heart?
Dancing in the heavens?   You know that “Ballroom In The Sky.”
Nervous laughter now relief road to that traffic jam of sentiment just about to speed off.
Glued to the spot that macabre sixth sense of Violet hovering above evaporates due to an illusory shaft of late evening sun. 
Warm misty comas presently forming a shroud over Wild but he was immune to them.
Geoff’s mental state shifts from doze to daze. Clouds of recall floated past his eyes with the odd fact jolting him out of his stupor.
Wild could no longer hide from the rather bizarre identities Valerie and Velvet Heart possessed.                          “Oh those comic jibes and piercing glances that they cast at any distance. Some ethereal intrigues were passing through the air in a game of bow and arrows that never missed their target.”  
Geoff  recalls with forensic clarity.
Poor Silent Sam who was also at a loss  would do his usual u-turn into the shadow.  He then shook his head in dismay. 

Two months before Geoff's and Violet’s parting, an unforgettable incident occurred. 
Quite often memory is a lodger which steadfastly refuses to surrender its keys.  It was one of those Sunday’s that typified the area Geoff lived in.
Valerie and the Blue Skies were in flying form as the tunes morphed and segued into each other.   Valerie and Velvet Heart who were magnets for men knew the music would amplify their appeal.
This tuneful genre helped both aforementioned  ladies ooze  black magic.
Violet's knowing stare caught Geoff off guard.    “Guilty conscience, there Geoff?”
Having fantasies about Valerie. 
Focus all those erotic thoughts on me.
As for that eternity ring remember?”                                  Violet’s eyes twinkled as she seized Geoff up and down. Those penetrating peepers knew how to vet a body in a flash.
“Oh no .....not at all.”  Geoff with a loop of a  smirk.
“Just those mystical melodies working their spell.” He said.
“You came into my life like the early morning sun.... a new dawn.”  Wild in poetic mode.         
  “You honey tongue you.  Wait,  Geoff our song. Yes, Ballroom.”   Violet mutters gingerly.
Valerie nodded towards Sam.  
Her expression was a hard to decipher veil  and deep code command.
“Get those fingers flying,  Sam.” 
In a tone identical to Velvet Heart leaving no room for misunderstanding. 
Sam didn’t always act immediately on Valerie’s cues.
“Yep.. Yup  ...Sure.”  Sam’s usual retort.
Eventually.

“Ballroom In The Sky”  now strong as ever as it cast its bewitching spell to all sections of this venue.
A medley was now included tonight for the first time.
“SOMEONE  FOR EVERYONE” ( Sam looked at Valerie), “A LITTLE BIT BLIND” ( Sam  staring vacantly at both Valerie and Violet),  “MIND YOUR STEP( Sam winking at Geoff while scrunching the mouth at Violet). 
Violet edged toward the stage whilst tenderly  clasping Geof.    There was a dim-lit silence. 
Ballroom started again.  Valerie and Violet now singing this tune.  An eerie vacuum filled the hall as they sang unaccompanied with Geoff simply awestruck.
A triangular crush of people occurred near the stage.
Valerie handed Violet a letter which Geoff could only peer at.  What was in it? 
Sam was now talking to Valerie with the usual economy. 
In the confusion of memory images are both mist and blur.
“Pst...Pst.  It's me.   Your Velvet Heart is back to haunt you so I am.“   Violet’s lofty twang. 
“What in the name….I can't  phantom…..fathom.”                       Geoff nearly froze.  Violet’s voice sounded like a wet whisper stretching over twigs that simultaneously tap against windows. 
She pulled back an orchard pattern duvet which was covering Geoff.
“Fell asleep at your favourite film, The Passing Of A Velvet Heart.   All those graveyard scenes shot in our small town remember?  
Actually Silent Sam wrote the soundtrack for the film and Ballroom.  He sings on that one.”  Said Violet objectively.
“Incredibly you chose Velvet Heart as your courtship name for me based on the film.
The film was never a huge success at all but did get our area some limited publicity for a while.
Sam earned some extra royalties, though not a king’s ransom from the soundtrack sales.
Valerie and Sam tying the knot next Sunday of all days.
As for that love letter you mumbled about in your sleep.
It’s an invite to their secret wedding.
Very private. As Sam is.
What a time and place he chose for the invitation.
During that ethereal love song which brought us together.” Once more Violet observes.
“Poor Sam’s a little bit blind and confused on occasions.
You know next Sunday and all.  Or is he?
I was upstairs on the flat roof today.
Six months ago I fell off it.
You’ve never liked me being up there since.” 
Violet continuing.
“Guilty secret must confess.  I used to be onstage instead of Valerie.
Well, sometimes.
She was dating you pretending to be me.
We never knew each other that well but it was a dare worked out between us.“
Geoff shouted. “Hoodwinked.”
An incredulous look ripples over Wild’s pale face.
Violet’s eyes now ablaze.
“You never noticed did you?  Deep down.”
This dry playful tease surfacing from Violet again. 
Geoff was thunderstruck.  Violet strolled towards their CD player on the mahogany table near the drawing room corner.
“Think you’ll like this one. Our song with Sam on vocals.”  A tranquil Violet stated.
“This is one tune you’ll definitely know.
May I dance with you?”
Geoff smiled.  “Of course.  I would be delighted.
And relieved!”
Silent Sam’s voice wafts and weaves in his own inimitable shy way a song usually sung by Valerie, his wife to be.
And sometimes Violet, or Velvet Heart.
A number that united three people in the most curious and otherworldly manner!
“Yep….Yup ….Sure.”  
As Sam was in the habit of saying!

NB  Serious edits, reviews, repetition issues attended to,
Superior  alignments, deep cuts, input from family and friends..
.