Pic and a Word Challenge #181: Night & Day Six

Today certain anniversaries are acknowledged, one of which inspired a book for children entitled What happened on April 6? About the other my parents are still not telling.

Suffice to say, here we all are. Cheers, parents. How lucky for you and for me.

Stuck between wine and mineral water.

Challenge 6: “Write a poem that emphasizes the power of ‘if,’ of the woulds and coulds and shoulds of the world.”

What if April 6 didn’t happen
 
What if
 on this day in 1941
 Yugoslavia were not attacked
 or, since it was,
 nobody fought back?

 What if
 on this day 25 years later
 a man and a woman  
 didn’t start thinking  
 how nice it would be to have me?

 (Mother insists
 on being called
 “Yugoslavia”,
 while father says  
 that she was the aggressor.)  

 What if there were no birth
 to mark my being
 and in how many worlds  
 out there
am I not?

 What if  
 the day
 without the sun
 and all the other stars
 were just another night? 

---

In the photo part, various night-time photos from my places in Italy and Slovenia, because Patrick said Night for his Pic and a Word challenge. I’d say that I don’t take many photos at night since they usually suck but I’d be wrong. Here are some favourites.

• 

  Let’s start in Rome: Ponte Sisto.

• 

  Viale di Trastevere at night.

• 

  The Colosseum.

• 

  More Trastevere at Christmas.

• 

  When we had the fireplace.

• 

  Sunset on the road towards Orvieto.

• 

  My first Italian wedding (not mine).

• 

  Let’s hop to Slovenia. Bled Castle above the lake.

• 

  Cinema under the stars in Piran. Documentary on Laibach in North Korea. Laibach means Ljubljana.

• 

  From the roof of Hotel Piran.

• 

  Koper. These lights keep changing colour.

• 

  The moon, barely.

• 

  Ljubljana at night.

• 

  In December Ljubljana goes a bit light crazy.

• 

  Trnovo church in Ljubljana.

• 

  Back to Tuscany: Orbetello cathedral.

• 

  Black butterfly.

• 

  Tuscany at night. Pereta.

• 

  Home with my heart on the windowsill.

In response to Patrick Jennings’ Pic and a Word Challenge #181: Night

and for Day 6 of NaPoWriMo