staircase poem 36

i wonder about the story
of the yellow tree or trees
not in any forest but
in people's yards close to houses
limbed close to the trunk
& skinned—all bark removed—
then painted yellow to signify
something i don't know

& the sarajevo eye from
a mortar round on wall
of a hostel above a bakery
—pekera edin—in old
turkish market adjacent
austro–hungarian-built
sarajevo city hall not used
many years before archduke
ferdinand & his wife sophia
were assassinated in the street
& that triggered the great war
—world war i—& the end
of that empire though yugoslavia
wasn't built—pulled together—
until 1943 in world war ii

& i wonder about buildings
in belgrade bombed by nato
bombed by canadian & american
fighter jets & some buildings
have not been rebuilt—have not
been cleaned up—have unexploded
bombs inside them today
these many years after the bombing
& will they ever safely be
defused & removed?