6Speaking to both a personal and collective loss, in Brother Bullet Casandra L pez confronts her relationships with violence, grief, guilt, and ultimately, endurance. Revisiting the memory and lasting consequences of her brother's murder, L pez traces the course of the bullet--its trajectory, impact, wreckage--in lyrical narrative poems that are haunting and raw with emotion, yet tender and alive in revelations of light.

Drawing on migratory experiences, L pez transports the reader to the Inland Empire, Baja California, New Mexico, and Arizona to create a frame for memory, filled with imagery, through the cyclical but changing essence of sorrow. This is paralleled with surrounding environments, our sense of belonging--on her family's porch, or in her grandfather's orange grove, or in the darkest desert. L pez's landscapes are geographical markers and borders, connecting shared experiences and memories.

Brother Bullet tugs and pulls, drawing us into a consciousness--a story--we all bear.