Gorgeous collection of poetry about the Hmong people of Laos and their flight during the travesties of the 20th century. The author, Mai Der Vang, is Hmong-American and recounts her family's journey from Laos, to a refugee camp in Thailand, to a ghetto in Minnesota, to California. She constantly plays with the connection between body and land, interweaving the physical and spiritual parts of being human with descriptions of land, stones, flora, and fauna. I used Google image search a lot while I was reading because these poems are so visual. Laos is a beautiful country, and I feel the sadness of what has been lost after centuries of conflict.