Too Many Echoes

By BR Chitwood

*

Too many echoes fill the air,

Like a dream with too many players…

A cow moos in the meadow,

Happily chewing its cud and grass…

As tears roll down my cheek,

With memories of Appalachia

Emotions pitch low and high as

I guide old Bessie home for milking…

The school’s resident bully stops

Me, taunts, teases, and fills me

With unaccountable fear and pain…

The bully runs toward his home

As his father yells his displeasure

In his call for chores and dinner…

Small, simple these easy words convey

A condition which shall prevail

For the rest of my life…

Old Bessie and I make it to the home

Of my grandparents who caretake me,

Knowing well the ugly memories of the past…

Divorced parents and the awful depression

That ruled so many of our days, and nights,

Nights when sleep was blocked by thoughts…

My beautiful country born and bred

Grandma and Grandpa saw me through

Those long-ago days of struggles…

They will always be in my thoughts and

Prayers, reminding me that a simple country

Life brought me love and humility…

***

BR Chitwood – Author

July 11, 2022

My Web site with twenty books of fiction (some based on true crimes), hundreds of blog posts, poetry, short stories, flash fiction, and songs:

https://www.brchitwood.com

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Winners and Losers

Winners and Losers

By BR Chitwood

       In each of us are desires,

 For each of us aspires…

  To each of us, confusion,

    For each of us, delusion…

      Dreams come unbidden,

      Some stark and hidden…

      Truth can bring mockery

      To daily-labored drudgery.

      We pray for aid to Deities,

      Or toss the die nervously…

***

–BR Chitwood– 6/29/22

All my books with synopses and posts can be found at: https://www.brchitwood.com

Please, have a look!

Love and Weather

Love and Weather

By BR Chitwood

***

 Weather tomorrow: Blue Skies, soft

breezes and Sunshine!

Turn off spigot to troubling thoughts!

Believe in your dreams and attack the day!

Keep the smile in place – someone is nearby…

Love taps tenderly on your shoulder, and kisses your cheek…

A song plays loudly on a passing auto:

More dreams pass with a zephyr.

The Western sky spreads its beautiful

Panorama of colors…

There is no place on Earth that you would rather be.

Car horns honk blessings to the couple on a tree-lined mall

As they continue their lovers’ walk to their brighter future!

Hearts and Souls unite for this special day of Happiness!

*

BR Chitwood – June 15 2020

***

My 20 books in most genres with synopses, book cover pics, over 500 blog posts, Short Stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry are on my WordPress Website…

My WordPress Website: https://www.billyraychitwood.com

Love and Weather

By BR Chitwood

***

 Weather tomorrow: Blue Skies, soft

breezes and Sunshine!

Turn off spigot to troubling thoughts!

Believe in your dreams and attack the day!

Keep the smile in place – someone is nearby…

Love taps tenderly on your shoulder, and kisses your cheek…

A song plays loudly on a passing auto:

More dreams pass with a zephyr.

The Western sky spreads its beautiful

Panorama of colors…

There is no place on Earth that you would rather be.

Car horns honk blessings to the couple on a tree-lined mall

As they continue their lovers’ walk to their brighter future!

Hearts and Souls unite for this special day of Happiness!

*

BR Chitwood – June 15 2020

***

My 20 books in most genres with synopses, book cover pics, over 500 blog posts, Short Stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry are on my WordPress Website…

My WordPress Website: https://www.billyraychitwood.com

Or: https://www.brchitwood.com

  ***

Two Books Based on Truth

Two Books Based on Truth

By BR Chitwood

*

Two True Crimes!

One solved! One still a mystery!

“Mama’s Madness” was solved some years ago by some excellent police work in Northern California…

This ‘Mama’ was from the loins of Satan, evil in word and deed, the punishments of her daughters were manic and difficult to believe, recorded not here but stark and vivid in the book. This ‘Mama’ murdered two of her three daughters and an ex-husband, robbed and invented tortuous punishments so ugly and vile to mention here – but, there between the pages of the book, the reader will find them. This is a well-written book with many 5-Star Amazon ratings…you don’t want to miss this one!

This one was solved: mother sentenced to a California prison…probably out by now…

BUY SITE FOR ‘MAMA’S MADNESS’: https://www.amazon.com/Mamas-Madness-Billy-Ray-Chitwood-ebook/dp/B07DCFWNX7/ref=sr_1_1?crid=I8WMPK9ELK7W&keywords=Mama%27s+Madness&qid=1654728126&s=books&sprefix=mama%27s+madness%2Cstripbooks%2C101&sr=1-1

*

 “Stranger Abduction” is very close to the Author’s heart because this crime was committed prior to my move to some ranchland in SE Arizona… My new neighbors told me as much as they could know about this mother and daughter disappearance, to wit:

It is a summer Sunday afternoon in rural Cochise Country, AZ near Sunizona, AZ, and a large happy family has just finished Sunday lunch. It is decided that Mom and her pert little 14-year-old daughter will walk three miles to their country store for ice cream and cigarettes for Dad. It is a walk often taken by members of the family – a sister lives along the Hwy. 181 route, affording them the opportunity to stop and visit.

Mother and daughter reach the country store, chat gaily with the owners and other shoppers, then leave for their return walk home, happily smearing ice cream on each other’s faces and kicking gravel along the road… a cheerful Mom and Daughter enjoying their Sunday.

Mom and daughter never make it home on that sunny Sunday in 1983!

They were never heard from again.

*

The sad aftermath of this true case is a family tragedy!

This novel explores the possibilities of what might have happened on that Sunday afternoon so many years ago. As an author in residence some six miles from Route 181 where two people were abducted, having talked to so many of the neighbors, I had to write about this case… It became a ‘must do assignment’ for me, and, I suggest for other writers as well.

PLEASE! If anyone has any information about this ‘Cold Case’, please contact the Sheriff’s Office in Bisbee, Arizona. PLEASE!

*

By BR Chitwood

https://www.brchitwood.com

OR

https://www.billyraychitwood.com

BUY SITES:

BUY SITE FOR “STRANGER ABDUCTION: https://www.amazon.com/Stranger-Abduction-Billy-Ray-Chitwood-ebook/dp/B01K5ZRFS4/ref=sr_1_3?crid=135W0RS5SS0XS&keywords=stranger+abduction&qid=1654729175&s=books&sprefix=%2Cstripbooks%2C96&sr=1-3

All 20 of my novels, 500 blog posts, many Short Stories, Flash Fiction, and Poetry are on the website provided above… Hope you can read and enjoy some of my stories.

*

BRC

Life, Love, and Longings

Life, Love, and Longings

A Poem by BR Chitwood

*

Short, Tall, Lanky, All Sizes, All Colors,

              Males, Females, Cats, Dogs, ‘Beasts of Prey’,

           Gays, Straights, Old and Young, All Creatures,

        Popes and paupers, have precise engineering

           Which allow them to satisfy their needs For Love,

         For Hate, For Expression – with different styles          and Languages, of course.

**

      There are many Specialists who make it their  

          Life’s work to journey through knowledge fields

          To enlighten our minds with new information…

           We are landing on the Moon, entering deeper into

       Outer Space, Exploring Mars and other planets

       With newer technology, giving the US public new

     And promising information…

  ***

Here on Earth, we live with raw street violence,

   Robberies, Murder, wanton terrorism in our cities,

 And ‘Politics’ has turned a different scary shade of

Yellow, without sensible leadership, Marxist drivel

Occupying many college campuses…it cannot be

  This writer alone seeing our country going to hell

                in that ‘proverbial hand-basket’!

****

 I am not the smartest ‘ape’ in this jungle but I need this moment to express my concern for our United States of America… In short, we need, badly need, new leadership to restore border law enforcement, to rid our political representatives from receiving big money from ‘K Street operatives. We need a person who cannot be bought…

*****

BR Chitwood – June 8, 2022

For the Love of my Country!

My 20 books in many genres, over 500 blog posts, short stories, flash fiction, and Poetry, all at:

https://www.brchitwood.com

Hope you don’t mind my saying so: ‘There are some great novels I’ve built around ‘unsolved cases’ as well as Romance, Mystery, Suspense, Sci-Fi, History, and other genres…

Hope you have an opportunity to read my books, blog posts, F/F, and Poetry.

BRC

.

So Much Mayhem and Mud

So Much Mayhem and Mud!

*

BR Chitwood

*

Papers print the news!

Television shoots the live images!

A senile president can only play ‘Yesterday’!

Can it be that so many of our public Servers are ‘brain dead’?

It is all unfolding before our eyes!

Daily!

Hourly!

Innocents are killed!

The world quakes in disgust!

Where is Superman?

The Militia?

The total outrage!

Can we be this weak in protecting our people?

When the hell is enough, ENOUGH?

We are throwing money away like drunken fools!

Rampant are the fools we trust!

Where is the End?

The last body laid to rest?

Where is the wrath of God?

The tune plays on and on!

Someone must care!

Troops must be everywhere!

Until!

Until the madness is gone!

Until babies can be born again!

Until the reason for living is viable again!

Until gross selfishness suffocates from its labor!

Until the world can awaken to new days!

To brightness and peace!

To merciful giving and love!

It must come!

Doom awaits in the shadows!

Be rid of malice and brutal behavior!

Now, dammit!

Not in a few weeks or months!
Now, dammit!

No more bullshit!

Now, dammit!

Rid us of hypocrisy in Government!

Give us our inalienable rights?

Now, dammit!

*

BR Chitwood – May (NOW), 2022

*

My 20 books, 500 blog posts, short stories, Flash Fiction, Poetry, Songs can be found at:

https://www.brchitwood.com

Who Do You Think You Are?

Who Do You Think You Are?

*

BR Chitwood

*

“Who do you think you are?”

“What? Who is speaking?”

“You are, Weirdo! You’re talking to yourself.”

“Hmm! Strange! That’s never happened before…”

“Sure, it has, almost daily, in fact.”

“Whoa! Who the hell are you…and, where are you?”

“In your brain, Idiot!”

“Which side?”

“Which side? Which side? What a dumb-ass question… your frontal lobe.”

“Oh, My God! I’m going nuts!”

“Going? You been working on this for some time, dip-shit!”

“Hey, keep it clean!”

“You’re doing the talking, dip-shit!”

“So, I’m going crazy! The ‘Frontal Lobe’ of my brain is talking to me…so, you eavesdrop on everything I think or say. Is that your function? There’s a ‘left’ and a ‘right’ lobe, right? So, what’s your job ‘Lobe-Meister’?”

“Why did I get stuck in your brain? You are a dummy…but, okay, I’m a functionary part of your brain: the ‘left side’ of the lobe controls the right commands; the ‘right side’ controls the left… You’ve never done this before! Why, now? This chat business”?

“’Never done this before’? Hey, Lobe-Meister, this is as new for me as it is for you. It’s not like I requested this meeting…”

“Okay, okay, something is up, and I have to check it out. Are you hurting anywhere?”

“There is a light quaking sound… No pain. Otherwise, I’m sitting here thinking I’m crazy!”

“Don’t take that off the table as a possibility, because I’ve never had this happen before… I will do my ‘due diligence’ and get back to you. For now, go to bed and sleep for hours.”

“Before you go, what’s the difference between the ‘mind’ and the ‘brain’?”

“Huge subject, pardner… The mind can influence the brain, have a ‘mental force’ – check out ‘Neuro Plasticity and The Power of Mental Force’.”

“That’s it? You are leaving me with that? One last thing: Am I going to be hearing from you on a frequent timeline? Do I have a ‘say’ in the matter? If not, please, don’t come at me when I’m making love or out on a date…”

“Sorry, I cannot make any promises…maybe your thought processes will be enough! Bye.”

“Meant to tell you this earlier: your voice sounds really prissy-like…does God include you with every birth?”

“No comment! I said, ‘Good-bye’!”

“Hmmm!”

*

BR Chitwood – May 25, 2022

*

All 20 of my books with synopses, 500 blog posts, short stories, Flash Fiction, Poetry, and Songs can be found at:

https://www.brchitwood.com

So, Now What?

So, Now What?

BR Chitwood

*

Another move!

Sold our beautiful South Mountain Retreat – could not turn down the price…yeah, I know, money is not everything! Couple it, however, with home prices ‘through the roof’, a body getting older and less functional with each passing day plus a handsome payoff and a temporary move-in with our good and wise daughter, my wife doing all the work (I know, I know! I’m worthless!) and me sitting sprawled on my ‘lift chair’ already typing this short post… A lovely couple, Blake and Claudia along with their beautiful Lab, Sami, are the new owners – Blake, a Clinical Psychologist and, Claudia, a Registered Nurse – beautiful people from the far west.

Aging of course comes with strange catalysts, like, a sudden fall or short memory recall…just laying the foundation like it is, the result of a couple of falls, some aches and pains.  I can still walk and get around, have family who cater to my needs – and, wow, I use this to the greatest ‘poor me’ extent possible. Actually, the place I feel still secure within myself, still viable in my writing, is when I open this laptop gadget and start my pecking.

You can take this to the bank: I shall know when my words become too mundane and without any solid penmanship…maybe this short post will give one pause as to the viability of my writing…,

  That is when I will ‘rock you’ with a scintillating short story, flash fiction, and/or poetry. Writing has been such a strong force for so many years, it would be sacrilege not to obey its enticements.

So, no earth-shattering piece here, just some facts of my aging life for my small cadre of readers and writers.

 My wife did all the work, so why am I so damned tired?

Just saying!

*

BR Chitwood – May 9, 2022

Go to Word Press for synopses of my twenty books, over 400 blog posts, short stories, flash fiction, and poetry.

https://www.brchitwood.com

ired But Still in the Fight

Tired – But Still in the Fight

BR Chitwood

*

The softness, sweetness settles within me

On this still, slumberous, summer day…

The sky above is clear and convenient

 To my aging heart and soul of wandering.

The big windows out of which I peer

Display the birds, quails and rabbits in

Their daily missions for food and play,

          Forever watchful as the coyotes are fast         

 Afoot, canny, can spring from the idle

Brush, Ironwood, and Palo Verde Trees.

*

Here, in the comfort of A/C and luxury,  

My mind ponders the plurality of messages

My outside view might reveal through

This tired heart and soul that have borne

Witness to so much my Gracious God

Has so generously shared along my way…

The joy of love and family, the search

For fame and glory that has shown in

Quantities never as large as one might hope,

Never the prominence foolish pride allowed.

*

So, it seems this beauty outside my windows

Is occasionally followed by rain and wind…

Perhaps, more in hope and longing, nay, in

Truth and Faithful days and nights of dark

And wistful thoughts, witnessed by the moon

And brilliant stars outside another window…

After prayer, a truth emerges, vague, tingling,

And, suddenly, my bedroom wall to the East,

 An amorphous cloud slowly passes, my eyes

Widen: an image of Jesus gently smiling…

*

BR Chitwood –

https://brchitwood.com

You Are Your Moods

You Are Your Moods

BR Chitwood

You are your moods…just sharing some of mine…

My mother was a gentle, generous, and kind woman from a large loving family of four boys and four girls, the matriarch of the brood fervently involved in her Protestant Faith. The father was a quiet, gentle, corpulent man, a railroad foreman for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, a most pleasant person who seldom interfered with the demands of his pious wife who each day offered a loud, long, tearful, prayer to her Father in Heaven, with all present kneeling for her long wailing wishes for blessings and forgiveness of sins committed by her and her brood. Despite the parental toughness of her ways and the seriousness of her moods, she was a kind and gentle person.

Two of the four boys would serve their country in World War Two, one ferrying our brave warriors to the shore at Omaha Beach. The youngest of the brothers was murdered as he was closing down his ‘Filling Station’ late at night in Knoxville, Tennessee. Stanley was his name and a most wonderful Uncle. Uncle Stanley saw me through some difficult times in my early life. I loved this good man and think of him often through all these years.

Uncle Stanley and my mother were so much alike, both holy of heart, soul, and honorable in their daily living…

My Mom was a boarding house cook and a Bell Telephone Operator/Supervisor. Because of economic conditions at the time my mother had to rely on the state of Tennessee and my grandparents for boarding and financial help – it was a necessary procedure for many families at the time.

My most memorable years came when my mother brought my sister and me to live in a lovely home across from a beautiful college where I played tennis with some of the students and attended elementary school. Times got better for our small family. My sister blossomed early and wanted all that went with a pretty face and desirable body…problems, yes, but the family worked through it.

Much of my life was molded from those early days, still given to thoughts of a past with too little good and a lot of ugliness. I served my country, got through college, taught writing to high school seniors, did some acting, commercials and film, married a few times, sired three beautiful kids who constantly amaze me with their goodness, settled at last with a lovely lady who is all a man could possibly want.

Oh, and I have written twenty books, many based on true crimes, mystery and romance, a couple of memoirs, some 375 blog posts, many ‘flash fiction’ pieces, short stories, and poetry.

Okay, had this quiet afternoon of reflection, felt like writing some of it down, and I feel better…and, I just felt like sharing it with people who might be reading my posts.

All of my books are on: https://brchitwood.com

Hope you can read some of my books…and perhaps leave an Amazon review if so inclined…