Love And Music

The Obsessed Fan Speaks

Because I was alone and talked to myself
Because my day-dreams were always real
Because I was a maker of lists that never got done
Because boys never asked me to dance
Because girls talked behind my back
Because my mother constantly hassled me
Because my father ignored me
Because I was never in fashion
Because my hair was too long or too short or
too straight or too curly
Because my clothes never fit quite right
Because I never got the knack of the knock-em-
dead look: black Maybelline mascara,
jade green eye shadow, coral ice lipstick
Because my period was too early, too late,
too little, too much
Because I hated the girls with the bigger breasts:
Patricia, Kathleen, Jean with the jet black hair
Because the boys who noticed me were losers:
Daniel, Richard, Tom with the spit collecting
in the corners of his mouth
Because growing up Catholic in the fifties
was a drag
Because my first grade teacher, Sister Sharon,
had acne
Because my eighth grade teacher, Sister Marie,
had beautiful ankles
Because I had a crush on the priest
and he never returned my calls
Because my hands sweat every time I went
to confession
Because in the darkness of the confessional
the greenish-white aura
of the glow-in-the-dark crucifix
stared me down whether I sinned or not
Because I was restless and bored and thirteen

That's why Elvis
and the screaming and crying and fainting
and spending every dollar I had to buy
Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Loving You,
All Shook Up, King Creole, Don't Treat Me Nice,
Love Me Tender, Don't Be Cruel,
Baby I Don't Care, Blue Suede Shoes,
Return to Sender, Heartbreak Hotel,
Are You Lonesome Tonight?

That's why Elvis
and not Ron or Kevin or David
because they were merely real
and he was better than that, better than real
he was Elvis Elvis Elvis Elvis Elvis Elvis
and because there was no one, no one,
no one else