GET DOWN OFF YOUR HORSE,

    by Jim Bodeen

That’s what it says at the small gate
At the Temple of Literature in Hanoi—

Slow down, Bankers. Different work
Gets done here. A class of school children,

Easels set up with their backs to stone turtles,
Focus on what is real before their eyes.

This is serious work. Their teacher,
Oblivious to scholars and tourists alike.

The children know the turtle’s back
Is sky, its belly is earth, that turtle

Is strength and longevity. When the bombs
Fell during the American War, 

Turtles and stellae buried in sand
Huddled in contemplative defiance.