Draft story/lyrics being layered into a song we (Friends of Friends) are working on:

Victor Lou, Vick. He hadn’t been big enough to be a bully. He wasn’t small enough to be anything but what he is now. A shell he seems older than he looks. He’s not had laughter to fill his lungs his face. His is a too-big jacket for a man made small not wanting enough to be big enough for his boots laid out by life.

I don’t know him at all.

Victor Lou. He didn’t have faith in his feet on the ground and his face in the air. A clear question in his eyes could have forced the world to make space for the rest of his soul that could have been as big as the universe. He’d packed himself up. Neatly he’d folded away like a powdered handkerchief. Not for the world, he’d decided.

She’d asked for him but he’d just nodded. No shaky step forward, no holding out of the two hands kept cold and long in his pockets. He’d be thrice the size now if he’d danced the way he’d wanted to. Yeah, Victor Lou, tearing up the dance floor, disco diva, lights up and down and the town all a-dazzle. Beers ahoy and the world all around us and ahead. Neverending forever and after, we’re all young till the end of time and nothing’s ever going to fall out of the sky. Oh Victor Lou, your shoes are burning a hole in my heart and when we’re done dancing we’ll walk home happy.

I don’t know him at all.

The floor’s small and empty and sounds strike walls. No flesh on bones for dancing. He’d good eyes for dancing.

Copyright Vera Chok Jan 2013