THE NIGHT CHET BAKER DIED (MAY 13, 1988)
Yes, you died with no teeth,
each one beaten out of you
by thugs. You were in
deep—heroin, wasn’t it?
Your
embouchure lost,
that
James Dean face
greyed like an old sweat rag.
They found your body
in a big heap under the hotel balcony,
your trumpet on her stand
in a pawnshop window, dusty