Battlefield Blooming

Battlefield Blooming, Do’s second poetry collection, catalogs and interrogates the Vietnamese American experience. The poems in Battlefield Blooming address issues critical to the Southeast Asian American community, from refugee resettlement to police brutality.

In the opening poem of Battlefield Blooming, “Midnight Notes to the Martyr Nhất Chi Mai,” Do begins the collection by echoing a decades-old plea for peace from a young Buddhist nun. Unlike many, Do refuses to shy away from the gruesome, vivid image of the self-immolating nun, instead confronting it directly: “Martyr, I am your backwards reflection. / My body is a flaming torch / I did not light.”