Draft for a Gothic Elvis
Elvis Presley lives in a castle surrounded by Cadillac cars. His skin is oyster-pale, and he writhes like a worm, slithering back and forth. He mesmerizes us. And Priscilla draws "her long black hair out tight," and she plays "Are You Lonesome Tonight," while Elvis turns his face upward and whistles along with Priscilla and beats his wings, and he crawls "head downward down a blackened well." We push our faces through the velvet curtain and see " the whole man slowly emerge . . . and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss . . ." Elvis-lizard, a baby ghoul, a worm. A green faced Elvis inches through the twilight, drawing closer to your sleeping hand. Today, it is snowing. I walk toward the entrance, and I see what appears to be a small wad of black electrical tape that has been stuck to the bricks. I reach out and poke it with a pencil eraser. It moves. It is a little black bat, an acolyte of Elvis. Elvis squirms from u...
