Listening to midnight jazz, Sirius
radio on DISH satellite TV
Chet Baker’s trumpet complaining clear as
heartbreak yet smooth as a lover’s silk sleeve
caressing your bare chest: “Every Time We
Say Goodbye”. When young he could have doubled
for James Dean. Then heroin and jail would wear
his face to a craggy boulder. Trouble
stalked him, bled him. Yet he never silenced
that sacred horn, his singing voice clinging
to its mellow moan till the end. Sentenced
by fate to Amsterdam, body flinging
from his hotel balcony, smack and cocaine
and free fall ended his psyche’s crushing pain.
Roger Armbrust
April 26, 2020
