A Visit to Graceland

I couldn't believe what I saw.

A Visit to Graceland

 

By Elton Camp

 

Although Memphis is nearby

To visit Graceland I didn’t try.

Elvis wasn’t much older than me.

So his home I really should go see.

 

I followed the young tour guide.

“Stay together as we move inside.”

Critics call the house tacky as can be,

But it seemed quite luxurious to me.

 

No rightful criticism could I make.

In Elvis’ décor I saw no mistake.

I had no decorating advice to give.

It looks better than where I live.

 

“Now up these stairs is his private space.

The tour to go there would be a disgrace.”

The guide pointed on down the hall.

“On Jungle room, please make a call.”

 

I stared at the steps with eyes so wide.

“Up there’s where he lived and died.”

I stood alone at the foot of the stair.

Without any guard in charge to care.

 

Seeing a chance open to few,

I decided just what I would do.

While nobody was around,

Up the stairs with a bound.

 

In a large bedroom on the right,

Something gave me quite a fright.

“How do you dare to come up here?”

He asked in a voice shaky but clear.

 

He had a shock of dyed black hair,

But in places it was growing spare.

Then his great size next me astounds.

He must weigh three hundred pounds. 

 

“Just who do you think you are?

Nobody’s allowed to come this far.”

I felt like I was about to faint.

Surely, Elvis the King that ain’t.

 

“Everybody thinks I died years ago

They must continue to think it’s so.

I can never be fat and old.

So that big lie I have told.”

 

“Your secret is safe with me,” I cry.

“Before I would tell it, I’d sooner die.”

He looked at me with a trace of a grin.

“No way can you betray this has been.”

 

“Nobody would believe a story like that.

A claim you saw Elvis alive, old and fat.”

I realized it was all too true.

If I told it, the day I would rue.

 

Liar would become my name

For harming Elvis’ great fame.

“We know Elvis long ago died.

What type drugs have you tried?”

 

And right then I began to shake

Until it brought me wide awake.

My own bedroom I did then see.

In Memphis town I couldn’t be.

 

No matter how real it did seem,

It had been nothing but a dream.

But I didn’t really so much care

That it had only been a nightmare.

 

For if Graceland I ever visit for real

And find Elvis alive, I’ll never squeal.

Trim and handsome all want him to be.

No unfavorable image should they see.