"When I was a child there was this ice cream joint [in Memphis] called the Tropical Freeze, we used to go get lime freezes there in the summer. When I was one, my parents went there and had me with them. And Elvis was there; Elvis frequented a lot of the fast food joints in Memphis. He kissed my hand and said, 'hiya baby.' And I was a baby. That's my Elvis story." - Ellen Fullman, Wire Magazine March 2014
for Sim Eldem https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtV0je-liEg
#1
eventually every one elvis kissed turned into a baby
found a new place to dwell my time was in memphis
also ellen who you have not heard a single piece of music by
though we both would like it i think – and so often it rows a different way
#2
well since my baby i have been a lot more aware of what ingredients everything contains
it is lucky because they so often tell me hi i am one of your
five a day electric and shimmering and most importantly
in sequins he sings to sell out crowds in vegas
or is he pleading he is seen to be sweating and struggling
the words are hard to expel and something is messing with his breathing
he gets it all out in the end and the audience applauding drowns out the following:
it is not me really singing it is a committee of babies
#3
inquiry if elvis is making all the babies with his
kissing then how is it there are so many boy babies
further inquiry – just exactly who is elvis kissing to make all these boy babies
three hypotheses one - elvis is making boy babies for the furtherance of humanity
two – elvis is not the only one with the power to kiss and make babies
three – they are not boy babies they are pretending
some additional notes: i wrote first the good of humanity
and switched it for furtherance let us not have an unnecessary fanfare for
boy babies they will have plenty of that in their time
some of them are most undeserving and blue moon boys yelling
from the seat of some brand new cadillac apparently the pink they painted
elvis’ cadillac was called ‘elvis rose’ reading about it the blue moon boys sound better company
than the memphis mafia
they did not say on which day he was to have risen
#4
hold it fellas that don’t move me let’s get real real gone
for a change well don’t that old moon look lonesome
when your baby’s not around elvis is swimming
in a pool of his own trying not to think of his time in the army
or in the ghetto on both of those occasions there were a lot of babies
#5
imagine what it must have been like to see elvis
in the tropical freeze in memphis on that day
it stood on the southwest corner of poplar and white station in the sixties
the next eatery to occupy the corner was roy rogers roast beef after that came danver's
sometime pancho's moved into the building - starbucks has it for the time being
according to a flyer the basic shake cost thirty cents and a tropical shake thirty five
standard flavours were vanilla chocolate strawberry
cherry pineapple coconut and banana
tropical shakes were a delightful blend of island grown products
it did not greet you with a cheerful hi and i’m one of your five
some people thought
men were men back then but they weren’t
elvis knew it best they were all just babies thank you very much
epilogue
my friend sarah has text and asked what happens when elvis kisses
a person who is also already a baby what a good question
where are the terms and conditions