.
.
Distributed by Joe Glaser’s Associated Booking Corporation. Photographer uncredited and unknown., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
.jpg)
Chet Baker, 1955
.
.
Always Cool
Alison weaves on her loom in the living room.
Fifth floor walk up. Manhattan. Chet plays
on the stereo; a trumpet divinely graced,
caressed like a stunning woman’s body, soft
velvet skin.………. Soiled by drugs.
A hot night in the Big Apple; people walk streets
below to get cool. Chet, he was always cool no matter
the heat. He played horns and women and drugs;
determined to stain his life; back-alleys wherever
he traveled.
Where’d you go man? Where’d you go?
They found your body beneath a hotel window.
Amsterdam ………….Self-inflicted accident waiting,
took the offering gods bestowed.
Not a valentine, not a work of art, though you were
all that to her, to Alison…….. my blonde goddess friend
who wove your tunes, brilliant reds and blues and light;
no chaos.
She’s gone now too. I dream she found you; you
sing her songs, caress the horn in the way only
a genius can. You’re happy together. It’s what I have,
what I hold — from long ago and far away.
.
.
___
.
.
.
Judith Vaughn lives in Sonoma, California. She attended New York City College, John F. Kennedy University, and Dominican University with a focus in Psychology. She has written poetry since her childhood. Her publications include: First Literary Review-East, several publications; Oak Leaf News, a student publication at SRJC, Santa Rosa, CA; Jerry Jazz Musician: A Miles Davis Poetry Collection; and Redwood Writers, Crossroads, A Poetry Anthology, Summer 2022.
She is also a photographer:
Photo images: 500px.com/judithjudith1
https://judithjudith.tumblr.com
.
.
Listen to the 1954 recording of Chet Baker singing Jerome Kern and Ira Gershwin’s “Long Ago (And Far Away)” [Universal Music Group]
.
.
___
.
.
Click here to learn how to submit your poetry
Click here to subscribe to the Jerry Jazz Musician newsletter
.
.
.
