The Bridge on the Neretva

 by Julia Brent 

 

There it was -- the bridge on the Neretva. 

The town of Mostar on the river Neretva.

 

To the rushing, engulfing, cold blue below

We jumped off of the bridge on the Neretva. 

 

Once a city of peace now caught in an ethnic war 

deep seeded division at the bridge on the Neretva. 

 

Croat nationalists in 1993

forced relocation across the bridge on the Neretva.

 

The call to prayer resounding, 

mosques on the east of the bridge on the Neretva. 

 

Icons of popes and saints in rising steeples, 

churches on the west of the bridge on the Neretva. 

 

Bloody Sunday, brother betrayed brother, 

Resurrected cross on a hill by the bridge on the Neretva. 

 

A family sits at a cafe on the  river Neretva

and a naive Julia crosses the bridge on the Neretva.