In this searing poetry collection, the poet looks back on eighty years of life, expounding on personal and ancestral history, violence, trauma, and the light at the end of the tunnel. From the poem “Ancestors”, which chronicles the Native Americans’ plight and the theft of their land, to the poem “Dismounting”, a poem about the unsteady yet transcendent experience of learning to ride a horse, Vietnam Pivot paints a tapestry of life for the reader, with wisdom, bravery, and a breadth of imagery.