Bill Baber

SHORT-LIVED

There’s no way of knowing
if the unyielding heat
or the suffocating crush of boredom
had anything to do
with us becoming outlaws
the summer we were all fourteen.

It started innocently enough
with a brazen dare
thrown down between
fabricated adventures
and assorted adolescent lies.
It was Tommy’s Idea,
The Maloneys had left on vacation
And every one of us broke in
taking jewelry, a bottle of bourbon
and an unloaded pistol.

The next day, a sultry Sunday
dinner was required at my grandmother's.
While I ate overcooked roast beef
and dried-out vegetables
the rest of the gang drank the bourbon
then foolishly took the gun
to the neighborhood 7-Eleven.
None of them returned.
Needless to say, my career
as an outlaw was over.


Bill reads "Short-Lived":



Subscribe to Channel 52 for first view of new videos.


Bill confesses: "Teenage boys are capable of doing some incredibly dumb things when driven by peer pressure. Some get lucky and don't get caught or hurt. This poem is for those without luck."


BILL BABER has had over three 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 and in the occasional literary journal. His crime writing has earned Derringer Award and Best of the Net consideration. 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.

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":



Subscribe to Channel Five-Two for first view of new videos.


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.

Day 9: Mystery Playground - "We Didn't Know" by Bill Baber

Also on Day 9 of 30 Days of The Five-Two, Deb Lacy's Mystery Playground features "We Didn't Know" by Bill Baber.

Feel free to join the tour with a comment, tweet, or blog post of your own. Here's the schedule.

Day 1: Mystery Playground - Poetry Month Drinks with Reads

This year's 30 Days of The Five-Two starts at Deb Lacy's Mystery Playground, where potent potables are paired with the poetry of Bill Baber and Johnny Longfellow.

Feel free to join the tour with a comment, tweet, or blog post of your own. Here's the schedule.

Bill Baber

FIFTY-SEVEN LOUSY BUCKS

got me eight miserable years
in this crummy joint.
Fifty-seven bucks
that I never got to spend
and if I could have, on what?
Booze?
A girl?
Drugs?
A bet on some horse?
Eight wasted years
and for what?
When they let me out
I ain't coming back.
But then
that's what I said
the last time.


Bill reads "Fifty-seven Lousy Bucks":



Subscribe to Channel Five-Two for first view of new videos.


Bill confesses: "When I was younger I lived in a small town and knew a petty criminal who was in and out of jail. Every time he got out, he swore he was going straight and wasn't going back. he always did. This is for him and the thousands like him."


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.

Best of the Net 2015

I've submitted six Five-Two poems for Sundress Publications' 2015 Best of the Net anthology consideration. Because I believe every poem I accept is the best, I had Twitter users pick three of the six:

Five-Two fans, choose 3 of the poems we send to @SundressPub's Best of the Net. Favorite tweets w/ hashtag #BestPoemsOnCrime to vote.

— The Five-Two (@PoemsOnCrime) July 9, 2015

Here are the three most-Favorited poems, along with three of my choice, in the order they were published at The Five-Two:

• "The Alphabet of Murder" by Nancy Scott
• "First Grade Criminal" by Anne Graue
• "You Didn't Mean to Kill Anyone" by Roger Netzer
• "Star Wars: Dark Forces Re-Awaken..." by Elizabeth Lash
• "We Didn't Know" by Bill Baber
• "Love Me Like a Murder Scene" by Sara J. Tantlinger

Congratulations and good luck to all.

Bill Baber

WE DIDN'T KNOW

Danny was so sure
of his carefully drawn plan.
And even though I had doubts
since he had been away once before
I let him talk me into it.
He promised, "Nothing can go wrong
there's just one kid working
from six until they close."
He didn't know while that kid
was filling a bag with cash
the owner would come
from the backroom
pointing a double-barreled shotgun at us
or that I would shoot him dead.
We didn't know that a sheriff's deputy
would drive by at the exact moment
we ran into the night with
masks still covering our faces,
guns clutched in our hands.
I didn't know Danny would roll on me,
and I sure as hell didn't know
I'd land on death row for it.


Bill reads "We Didn't Know":



Subscribe to Channel Five-Two for first view of new videos.


Bill confesses: This poem was inspired by bad choices we all make and the people who sometimes talk us into them.

BILL BABER has had over two dozen crime stories published and his work has recently appeared in Rogue from Near to the Knuckle and Hardboiled Crime Scene from Dead Guns Press. He has also had a number of poems published online 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 his been known to cross the border for a cold beer. He is working on his first novel.

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":



Subscribe to Channel Five-Two for first view of new videos.


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.