Bill Baber

UNCASHED TICKETS

Making a huge move
around the clubhouse turn
The seven horse
grabs a lead it won't let go.
14-1 and the thousand dollars
worth of win tickets
that Tony D. held
could of gotten him
out of a real bad jam.
But they won't
because just before
the sixth race
they whacked him
for being five grand behind
on a two-month old debt.
With turquoise silks shining
in the late afternoon sun
Fates Right Hand
crosses the wire
five lengths in front.


Bill reads "Uncashed Tickets":



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Bill confesses: "This poem was inspired by my love of crime fiction and The Sport of Kings and the desperate people who have been known to inhabit both of those worlds."


BILL BABER has had over two dozen crime stories published and his stories have recently appeared in Rogue from Near to the Knuckle, Hardboiled Crime Scene from Dead Guns Press and Locked & Loaded from One Eye Press. He has also had a number of poems published online – one of which is being considered for a Best of the Net Award- and in the occasional literary journal. A book of his poetry, Where the Wind Comes to Play was published by Berberis Press in 2011. He lives in Tucson with his wife and a spoiled dog and has been known to cross the border for a cold beer. He is working on his first novel.