The City That Let Him Be Emperor (Joshua Norton)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
The restaurant
serves him
without charge
because
the restaurant
has been serving him
without charge
for twenty years
and the twenty years
are the longest
act of civic
tenderness
any city
has ever
performed

He pays
with currency
he printed himself
and the currency
has his portrait on it
and the portrait
looks like a man
who believes
he is emperor
and the believing
is so complete
so architectural
so load-bearing
that the city
looked at the belief
and decided
the belief
was more important
than the correction

The rice
took everything
Two hundred thousand
pounds
of Peruvian rice
arriving
in a harbour
where six ships
of Peruvian rice
had already
arrived
and the price
fell
the way prices fall
which is
without consulting
the man
who bet
his entire life
on the direction
they were going

[Chorus]
The city
let him
be emperor

Not because
the city
was foolish
but because
the city
understood
something
the rest of the country
did not:

That a man
who has lost
everything
and declares himself
everything
is not insane
He is
building
the only house
he has left
out of the only material
he has left
which is
the saying so

And the city
that agrees
to live
in that house
with him
is not
foolish
either

The city
is kind
And the kindness
is the currency
And the currency
is accepted

[Verse 2]
He abolished
Congress
He abolished
political parties
He called
for a bridge
between the cities
across the bay
fifty years
before
the engineers
built one

He wore
a blue uniform
with gold epaulettes
and switched
to Confederate brown
during the war
so as not
to show
favouritism
to either side
of his empire

The police
saluted him
after the one time
they arrested him
for vagrancy
and the city
erupted
in editorial fury
because
the emperor
had never shed blood
had robbed no one
had despoiled
no country
which is more
than most emperors
can claim
and the claiming
is the only throne
he needs

[Bridge]
His occupation
on the census
says Emperor
and the census
also notes
that he is insane
and both entries
are correct
and neither
cancels
the other

I have watched
many emperors
The ones with armies
I have watched
with dread
The ones with navies
I have watched
with caution

This one
I watched
with something
I rarely feel
which is
gratitude

Because
he proved
that a crown
does not require
a kingdom
A crown
requires
only a city
willing to nod
when the man
in the peacock feather hat
walks past
and the nodding
is not
agreement
The nodding
is love

[Final Chorus]
He fell
on a sidewalk
on a January evening
on his way
to give a lecture
at the Academy
of Sciences
with a few dollars
in his pocket
and a single
gold coin
in his room
at the boarding house

And ten thousand
people
came to see
the body
of a man
who had
no army
no palace
no navy
no treasury
beyond
the currency
the restaurants
accepted
because
the accepting
was the treasury

And the city
that let him
be emperor
buried him
in rosewood
instead of pine
because
the city
understood
that the difference
between a pauper
and an emperor
is not wealth

The difference
is whether
the restaurant
lets you
pay
with the currency
you printed
yourself

And for
twenty-one years
the restaurant
said yes

And the yes
is the most
beautiful
sentence
San Francisco
has ever
spoken

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