Spring/Summer 2013 #11 Vol 8

Now Available!
Cover art by George Cotronis
Current Issue/Spring/Summer 2013
Now available on Amazon
Previous Issues
Summer's Day
Fiction by Eric Bonholtzer
Summer was burning the ashes, watching intently as every trace of her
boyfriend’s favorite blue shirt disappeared into the smoldering fire of burning leaves.
She thought about just how much her boyfriend loved that shirt, and smiled a little,
the engraved brass buttons the only thing she ever liked about it. She watched the
tendrils of smoke as they wafted on the breeze, READ MORE
Expectations and Abandonment
Fiction by Peter LaBerge
The ice that tickled the New York City sidewalks felt strangely warm against my bare
feet—or perhaps my skin was just numb. It seemed that everything of mine was frozen—my
feet, my heart, my mind, and my life. It had been this way since they threw the dusty,
crumbling suitcase onto my neatly made-up bed, forced some clothes into it, and shoved
me out three months ago like a bag of garbage down a chute. READ MORE
The Ineffectual Pummeling of Father Time
Fiction by Dave Early
Another day of incessant guilt and shame looms.
Sometimes it takes him by surprise; two, three days burgeoning with basic multiple
intent; things get done, routine in their spontaneity, and then a morning of weakness, an
inability to wake up at the best time from which to progress with a meaningful schedule,
and everything is ruined, and this allows the greater concerns, those ingrained, to infiltrate
his mind and scupper any prospect of returning to that functioning tread of the few
days past. READ MORE
Useless Vows and Fallen Cherry Blossoms
Flash Fiction by Erica Gustafson
Peering over the bridge, his toes hovered over the edge as tingles of fear and
anxiety raced through his veins. He took one last swig of beer, which was now wrapped
by a brown paper bag that crinkled beneath his fingertips. READ MORE
5/12/2013 - Submissions are now closed and will not re-open until October 1st. Any submissions sent now
will not be read until then. Reading times for The Stray Branch are from October 1st through the end of
April. Have a great summer and I will see you in the Fall. Thank you, Debbie Berk
Thank you,
Debbie Berk
Founder/Editor
Poems chosen from current
issue to be featured on the website
"The Mist" by T.J. Streett
"Come In, Come In" by John Van Doren
"Camp Street Neighbors" by Gretchen Meixner
"Lego" by Kiki Denis
"The Healing Season" by Cindy Hochman
"Proposal" by Richard Hartwell
"Social-isolation" by Anthony Ward
"A Death" by Danny P. Barbare
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
Mark Burchard, Visual Poetry/Photography
James Valvis, Poetry
Leena Worthy, Photography
Suvi Mahonen, Fiction
Sy Roth, Poetry

Logo image and site banner by Debbie Berk,
Founder/Editor of The Stray Branch
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