Noma

Noma lived down the hall from me

In Chicago

Above a hot dog joint

All they served was hot dogs

Isn’t that the dumbest thing

You’ve ever heard?

Noma

That was his name

And I don’t believe

It was his real name

But it was certainly

A name

He used to say it was like--

‘No Ma, I don’t know where that twenty dollars went

From your purse’

And people would laugh

Noma made you laugh

He was good at that

He was good at a lot of things

He was good at knocking on my door

Late at night

When even the musicians

Upstairs from me

Were passed out

On their beds and couches

Six of them in a one-bedroom

And they would just sleep

Wherever they dropped

And they would drop

Pow pow pow

My first night in the apartment

I thought somebody was killing people
Up there

And I went running out into the hallway

And there was Noma

First time meeting him

And he told me about the musicians

And invited me into his room

For a drink

And I went in

There wasn’t much in his room

A table and chairs

A little bed

Clothes all over the place

And food-crusted pots

On his stove

I mean, the man was a slob

But he had a grin

And in Chicago

In those days

You could get pretty far

With just a grin

He grinned at me

And I said--

‘What are you grinning at?’

I thought--

Oh no, this man

Isn’t going to be

Grinning at me

I’m not up for that shit

But he kept grinning

Like he didn’t care

What I thought about him

Or why he was grinning at me

And that made me laugh

Never met a man before

Who didn’t care

About what another man

Thought of him

My father was a politician

Mayor of Blue Surrender, Georgia

He needed people’s opinions

So he could spin ‘em into votes

He wasn’t a good politician

He didn’t have a grin

But he was a good man

And he did good things with his life

And when he figured out

That I wasn’t going

To be anything like him

He gave me the boot

And I went running off to Chicago

To live down the hall

From people like Noma

Who were going to grin at me

And offer me coffee

In a dirty cup

And I drank it

I drank the man’s coffee

And I cleaned his apartment

And I helped him shave

You ever see a man

Shave another man’s face?

It’s an intimate act

A loving one

No way to do it

And not get close

Because of the trust

He puts in you

I would shave his beard

And stretch it out

For as long as it could go

Because I loved looking down into his eyes

Knowing that he put so much stock in me

In my goodness

And knowing that my dad didn’t think
I was good at all

He thought I was…

Once Noma’s face was smooth

And the cups were cleaned

And the clothes were all hung up

In the closet

In his bedroom

I’d lay down on the bed

And he’d lay down next to me

And we’d sit there

And not ask each other questions

Or try to figure each other out

We’d lay there

And wait

In that bed

For what felt like

Years

Until it was time

For the musicians

To wake up

And play us

Something

To help us

Fall asleep