Bill Baber

THE LATE SHOW

Shots fill the night like blooms of fireworks on the Fourth
a still body leaks life onto a dirty street
while hurried footsteps echo down the block
before a reluctant siren
begins to wail in the distance
there is never quiet here
and there is no forgiveness in this part of town
where street names are forgotten
and where raindrops fall like blame
peering out a window
little Johnny watches
thinking about horses
and green places he saw in a dream.


Bill reads "The Late Show":



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Bill confesses: "A combination of an images brought this poem to life.The first was of a young boy watching Tucson police arrest a man they were forced to subdue, and the second was the way a murder was committed in a casual, offhand way in an old black-and-white gangster movie."

BILL BABER has published over two dozen crime stories. A book of his poetry, Where the Wind Comes to Play was published by Berberis Press in 2011. He lives in Tucson and sometimes crosses the border for a cold beer.