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      May 17, 2017At the Forestry Institute, HanoiPepper Trail

      They are modestly proud of it
      Their bomb crater, behind the greenhouses
      They lead visitors out through the re-grown grove
      Warning of mud and roots, where it waits
      Water-filled, its clay walls braced with bamboo
      Round as a temple cistern
       
      December 1972, more bombs fell on Hanoi
      Than on London during the Blitz
      You can see the photos in the War Museum
      On Dien Bien Phu Boulevard, by the Lenin statue
      Block after block of small buildings, flat
      Nothing standing but the people
       
      A few steps from the crater is a bunker
      Rounded, half-buried in leaves and soil
      You can go inside and sit
      Imagine the forester hiding there
      As his rosewood trees burst and burned
      Holding in his arms a metal box of seeds

      from #55 - Spring 2017

      Pepper Trail

      “For the past eighteen years, I have worked for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a forensic ornithologist, identifying bird remains that are evidence in wildlife crime investigations. This strange, rewarding, and troubling job brings me face to face with death every day of my working life. It has also taken me to places like Vietnam, where I worked on combatting the illegal wildlife trade, and wrote ‘At the Forestry Institute, Hanoi.’ I spend much of my free time in nature (my graduate work involved field studies of animal behavior), and many of my poems reflect my close observation of the living world.”

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