I Love Elvis

I like Elvis.
Elvis is cool.
Even when
he played Las Vegas
in those silly jumpsuits
and speed sweat
flinging upper body judo swipes.
I love Elvis.
His voice was
made for tape echo,
hiccuping in between
upright bass notes
and Scotty Moore's
flatwound Gibson.
I always think about Elvis.
He loved Gospel music
and wound up
in rock and roll,
and wound up
in the army,
and wound up
in the movies,
and wound up
wound up.
What it was he wanted
wasn't probably
what he expected.
Philip K. Dick said
"Whom the gods notice
they destroy."
They destroyed Elivs.
We destroyed Elivs.
Elvis destroyed Elvis.
I like Elvis.
I like watching
my favorite part
of the movie
That's the Way It Is
where Elvis dons reading glasses
onstage at the Sands,
stares at an envelope
and says
"B.J. Thomas has written a song,
I don't particularly like it..."
and then phones it in.
At some point
Elvis decided
to profit off the line of credit
banked on his image
instead of
the act of creation.
I love Elvis.
I love America.
I think about them
all the time
until the difference
becomes unknown to me.