Iztok Mlakar

Ten things I love about my mom

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Today is my mom’s birthday. Above is the gallery of her images taken here and there in the last year (Photo: MM & BM), and below are ten reasons why I love her and ten songs that she likes so that she won’t need to surf for them again. Happy birthday, mom, and I wish everybody would be so lucky as me.

What I love about my mom:

10. That I was lucky to be born near her.

9. That she is not related to my father.

8. That she is 100% un-ear deaf and sings better than Rita Pavone.

7. That she annually hops from one saltworks to the other and goes on a walk almost around Ljubljana in celebration of its liberation (Why? adds Marco).

6. That she is a member of Slovene Partisan Veteran Association and The Association for the Recognition of Sauté Potatoes with Onions as a Main Dish.

5. That she and my father passed to me the gift of love for books and reading and read me all the right books when I was little.

4. That she loves my dog almost as much as me even though she was once mortally afraid of dogs.

3. That she has remained a little girl but with high moral standards.

2. That she has found such peace in the garden, and in dad.

1. That now that I’m away all I can remember about her are the good things.

Happy 40, mom!

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Photo: BM

For A.

A Glass of Wine (En glaž vina) by Iztok Mlakar

(Translated by Manja Maksimovič)

Give me a glass of wine before it turns into vinegar

and smile a little to me, my dear waitress, I’m single and free tonight.

Yes, I’ve been left alone again once this story is over

it’s not nice, I admit, but one needs to think about oneself

and I won’t give up as easily as that.

Oh, come on, you can do better than that

the world won’t collapse and if it’s nothing worse

it won’t make you drop dead.

Oh, come on now and god be by your side

I loved you too much to tell you: please stay

how I wish I at least knew how to cry.

It has gotten dark and the stars look lovely tonight

oh god, there are so many of them

if one of them is turned off

that piece of sky dies with it

a little bit of light is all that you left behind

tonight I wish to drink, tonight I need wine

to lighten up my dark night.