Brandon Lewis: The Mended Animal
At the core of The Mended Animal is a baffling loss that cannot be forgotten or
transcended. Rather, in poems that are as painful as they are precise, the radiating damage
of that loss is traced from the past into the present, from childhood into adulthood, from
one place to another, with each place made “sacred and troubled” by human brokenness.
Brandon Lewis is writing a poetry of great bleakness, yes, but The Mended Animal is also a
work of painstakingly beautiful story, wherein each story’s telling grasps at the unresolved
mystery of those we love, of the self, of the human heart and its burdens of grief and
vigilance.
—Rick Barot, author of Moving the Bones
Portrait of Denial
This was before two stints in rehab,
before the shakes and jaundice,
before I lied to my wife about loving her
more than drinking. I remember
thinking that night, unlocking my car
in the Haggen parking lot: What
are the odds? Running into her right
as the doors slid open, our son holding
her hand, yelling Hey it’s Daddy!
I was supposed to be a year sober.
Supposed to be at a meeting then over
to Birch Door Cafe with a group
of old-timers. I tried tucking the sixpack
behind my leg but she saw
and looked away, stepping past me
into the store. Chances are she already
knew, found a bottle under our bed
or buried in my dresser. The wife
who smells another woman on her man’s
clothes and says nothing. But that’s
not like her, I thought, driving home
in the rain. She’s simply moving
through the aisles filling a cart, checking
all the things she needs off her list.
Brandon Lewis was born in Seattle and raised throughout the states of Washington and
Montana. He received his BA in English from the University of Washington and his MFA from
the Rainier Writing Workshop at Pacific Lutheran University. His first book of poems, The
Mended Animal, was a finalist for the 2025 Richard Snyder Memorial Book Prize, as well as the
2025 Sally Albiso Award. His poems have appeared in numerous literary journals, including
Chestnut Review, Nashville Review, Naugatuck River Review, Portland Review,
and Superstition Review. He currently teaches high school English and lives with his wife and children in a small
town not far from Olympia, Washington.
Visit Brandon’s page at MoonPathPress.com
Purchase Brandon’s collection from your favorite retailer:
Raúl Sánchez: When We Were Water
In Raúl Sánchez’s When We Were Water, selections from his books All Our Brown-Skinned Angels
and When There Were No Borders travel to us with abundant new work that continues to
experiment in forms and shapes, with odes and acrostic poems, visions and flashbacks, elegies
and spirit-journeys, but always with humor and human vitality and a golden thread connecting
to Latin roots. This work is free and playful, jazzy and up close, exploding with intensity. These
are questing poems, liberation poems, devotional poems, ecstatic poems, comic poems, sincere
and lived and opening out.
—Douglas Cole, author of The Cabin at the End of the World
Ten Years Gone
in memory of my son,
Késhava Kumara Sánchez 9-3-1987 to 7-9-2000
I could not
teach my son
how to be a man
he’ll always
be
a boy
standing by the water’s edge
smiling
in that photograph
I speak his name
I speak his name
in silence
Raúl Sánchez is a self-taught poet whose work reflects the immigrant experience as well as his
own story. He volunteers as a bilingual mentor in middle schools, detention centers, housing for
the homeless and disabled, as well as with immigrants and laborers. He leads community “Poetry
in the Park” readings May–September in northeast Seattle. During COVID, he installed a
“Poetry Box” in front of his home filled with single poems for the neighbors to put in their
pockets as encouragement. He wrote the libretto for the Sinfonía “Moctezuma” monologue in
response to Vivaldi’s Motezuma, original version for Orquesta Northwest. Some of his poems
have become permanent public art in Seattle and Shoreline.
Visit Raúl's page at WorldEnoughWriters.com
Purchase Raúl's collection from your favorite retailer:
