Siniša Junčan reads from his book, Silence in the Quiet of Peace, for the Louisiana Words Tour at George's Place in Baton Rouge, LA.

  She Struggles She goes back and forth In and out of emotions Awake one minute Dreaming away the day In the next A paroxysm one moment Rocking steady in the next Its all crap one minute And then the world Is beautiful again She struggles but At least she's not afraid To say what she feels When she feels it It may be all crap today But tomorrow she will be okay

  Everything has a beginning and an end. It is one of the very first lessons that we are taught as chil- dren, especially when our parents needed an excuse to deprive us of TV time. The beginning of the war goes as far back as 1989, when the nationalist parties started rising and competing for dominance. “There were always three,” my father told me one day. “Two parties against one. It was always the second aligning with the strongest party to fight the third.” After the death of Tito, Slobodan Milošević ascended to Serbian presidency and attempted to consolidate power by centralizing the state, but many of the republics moved against him to loosen his grip. After many disagreements among delegates, four of the six republics sought to gain independence, Slovenia being the first of them. Backed by Germany and the Vatican, Slovenia strategi- cally prepared for Yugoslavia’s ineluctable retaliation. From June 27, 1991, throughout July 7, 1991, Slovenia skirmished with the Yugoslav Peop...