Elvis was riding his last summer

Elvis was riding his last summer

in limousine

through Madison Wisconsin

and on a corner

he saw two high school kids

fighting.

he said 'stop the car'

got out

put up his fists

threw some karate fakes
and he said c'mon

i'll take you both on.

they looked at him

a king robed in splendor

they couldn't consider it

they couldn't hit

Elvis.

so he says 

see!

there's no need to fight!

now shake hands.

i got a show tonight. 

-Jack Vaughan, 1977

When I was visiting my old home town of Racine, Wis. in the summer of 1977, I was standing on Main St one night with some friends, and one tells me the recent story of Elvis, in Madison, stopping a street fight. Maybe a month later on a similar summer night in Eureka Calif (Robert Cray and Albert Collins were playing), again with Wisconsin friends, there came the word that Elvis died. Somewhere along the way I started writing this poem. I was looking for a picture of Elvis in limo and actually found a reference to this incident, which, for all I knew, was urban myth. Pop culture and myth were what the poem was about. Elvis was bigger than Gilgamesh - and this story was a viral thing on a street corner to me.. Little did I know but it was to be 'retold many times' in multiple biographies. Anyway, it's out there now.