(after Mark Leidner)
They say Elvis could shoot a hoop from twelve metres out.

They say it was because he was missing a tiny bone

in each of his wrists.

They say that when he sweated the inside of his clothes

became gilded, and if they happened to already be gilded, became

like rainbows or supernovae.

They say that Elvis had a way with birds.

They say that this explains the mob of ornithologists that tried

to kill him in Georgia.

They say that once, after observing the flight of a group of grey

pigeons, Elvis predicted the rise and fall of the Spice Girls.

They say that if you listen to Blue Suede Shoes backwards, that’s

what it says.

They say that when Elvis was a child he often saw the ghost of a dog

that had been shot in the head.

They say that when he was older he drank dom peringon just to

forget it.

They say that he once lived in Alaska, in a spare log cabin with a

potbelly stove, and watched movies about pilgrims on

the television sets which he collected to people his

home with presidents and game show hosts.

They say that he once visited Sydney, Australia, but I’m not sure

I believe that one.

They say that Elvis never told a lie.

They say that he married for love.

They say that when his heart broke for the first time he created a dance move

so sad that it would break all other hearts forever, but that it made

him so afraid that he died without ever showing it to anyone.

They say that Elvis was a born a Leo, but that in end

it didn’t matter.

They say that if he had been born an insect he

would have made a great bumble bee.

They say that if Elvis had been born a fruit-bearing tree

he would have been a Santa Rosa plum.

They say that if Elvis had never been born at all, Michael Jackson

would have been forced to invent him out of plasticine

and chux wipes and to breathe the breath of life

into his puny open mouth.

All in all, they say that Elvis was sometimes a very sad man.

They say that after Michael Jackson brought him to life

Elvis cried and cried and cried.

They say that to this day, he has not moved in a very

long time.

They say he had a twin brother who died at birth

in a shack in Mississippi, about that one

the biographers tend to agree.

They say that whenever he checked out of a hotel

he would write the cleaners of that hotel a heartfelt

message on the special hotel stationary and sign it

with a flourish of the special hotel pen, which afterwards

he would sometimes, but always absentmindedly,

put in his pocket.