Milan B. Popović, born in 1976. He has published articles in music magazines Rocks, Time out and X-zabava. At present, he works as a journalist and critic in the following music magazines Sound & music, Butcherian vibe, Helly cherry art & underground, Metal sound, Barikada, Trablmejker, Nervni slom, Aku-punk-tura, Ispred dragstora, Hard & heavy, Kontra; in the literary magazines Kvartal, Gradina, Književne novine, Naš trag, Književni magazin, Pressing, Novina beogradskog čitališta; as well as in the culture magazine Bestseler. He is the editor of the literary fanzine Poezin. He writes prose and poetry, and lives and works in Belgrade, Serbia.Published works:
Oka da ne ispustim dah, collection of poems ( Narodna knjiga/Alfa 2007)
Molitva tetoviranog srca, collection of poems ( Narodna knjiga/Alfa 2006)
Vreme brutalnih dobronamernika, collection of poems (Narodna knjiga/Alfa 2006)
Vrata moje priče, one of the authors in the collection of short stories (Alma, Belgrade, 2005)
You can contact Milan B. Popović directly by e-mail: kulturaurbanih@yahoo.com
Burning
I still watch you damnably,
Like I watch inside myself,
At night.
I’m still alone,
Still
Eternally,
Almost totally,
But not
Entirely.
I still struggle with effort,
I’m crucified
And I search for a reason,
I find it,
I look at myself, I see myself,
While watching you.
I haven’t given up even when I have,
I haven’t surrendered even when I sink to the bottom,
While patting the tops of their heads with my knee,
It’s so freezing here,
While I’m burning,
My head is splitting and a stress cloud hugs it,
Lays it on its wide pillow
Which does not stop, does not finish.
The poet dies silently
I hide the keys of the end from him,
I cast them,
blend them,
and drown them in the silver river.
The poet sobs in the corner of solitude,
He bursts with stanzas as he shakes,
He kills
Himself.
He exists even when he doesn’t,
He leaves a pearly trail,
The words reflect and bathe
In the tears of truth.
The poet shivers while thinking about you,
The truth confesses that the poet
Has come to his end.
Pleasure Whirl
The moon reflects in a puddle
Of a frostbitten burnt rain leech,
It drinks in the first the last ray,
In it is the reflection of the dark sky.
I sit on the lid of silence
Of her shroud,
I hug with a virtuous movement,
I lure you to dream,
Tranquility, rest,
I only wish to take a break.
I roam somewhere,
To be around or I won’t leave with your self,
To go everywhere
And not to see all,
Only to decorate the disaster
with a noose wreath.
I see the end deep within myself,
I offer it to you as a present
Since you have to refuse the face.
You wish to leave
Since you have no time,
I only wish to drop
This sleepy guard.
Sometimes
Sometimes it worries me no more.
I take off the weight,
I take off everything,
I watch you
With closed lips.
The silence echoes through the ether,
Which exists,
Not.
Here, everybody has given up,
Except for me,
And I’ve given up on myself.
Sometimes, I’d like to whisper to you,
Sometimes, I’d like to weep, shout,
Remove my gaze, fall asleep.
Things have changed here,
But in fact they never have.
I do not know you.
I do not want anymore,
Although I really want everything,
Because it rolls
As it stands.
To whither I don’t know how, but I don’t feel the light.
I still watch you damnably,
Like I watch inside myself,
At night.
I’m still alone,
Still
Eternally,
Almost totally,
But not
Entirely.
I still struggle with effort,
I’m crucified
And I search for a reason,
I find it,
I look at myself, I see myself,
While watching you.
I haven’t given up even when I have,
I haven’t surrendered even when I sink to the bottom,
While patting the tops of their heads with my knee,
It’s so freezing here,
While I’m burning,
My head is splitting and a stress cloud hugs it,
Lays it on its wide pillow
Which does not stop, does not finish.
The poet dies silently
I hide the keys of the end from him,
I cast them,
blend them,
and drown them in the silver river.
The poet sobs in the corner of solitude,
He bursts with stanzas as he shakes,
He kills
Himself.
He exists even when he doesn’t,
He leaves a pearly trail,
The words reflect and bathe
In the tears of truth.
The poet shivers while thinking about you,
The truth confesses that the poet
Has come to his end.
Pleasure Whirl
The moon reflects in a puddle
Of a frostbitten burnt rain leech,
It drinks in the first the last ray,
In it is the reflection of the dark sky.
I sit on the lid of silence
Of her shroud,
I hug with a virtuous movement,
I lure you to dream,
Tranquility, rest,
I only wish to take a break.
I roam somewhere,
To be around or I won’t leave with your self,
To go everywhere
And not to see all,
Only to decorate the disaster
with a noose wreath.
I see the end deep within myself,
I offer it to you as a present
Since you have to refuse the face.
You wish to leave
Since you have no time,
I only wish to drop
This sleepy guard.
Sometimes
Sometimes it worries me no more.
I take off the weight,
I take off everything,
I watch you
With closed lips.
The silence echoes through the ether,
Which exists,
Not.
Here, everybody has given up,
Except for me,
And I’ve given up on myself.
Sometimes, I’d like to whisper to you,
Sometimes, I’d like to weep, shout,
Remove my gaze, fall asleep.
Things have changed here,
But in fact they never have.
I do not know you.
I do not want anymore,
Although I really want everything,
Because it rolls
As it stands.
To whither I don’t know how, but I don’t feel the light.
After the moon
It is four after the full
Moon
And I cannot close my eyes.
My thoughts are in shreds,
Like tired gloomy soldiers,
With bloody washed intoxicated hands.
And it buzzes within my skull,
Within my very soul.
They prepare their diversion,
They put off their operation,
They won’t let me be,
The streams of restless worlds,
Incomprehensible, my own.
While all the tired ones gather their strength,
Exhausted, to serenity I widen my pupils,
Frightened, drowned, suffocated.
Something distracts my thoughts,
Ties them up in a triple entangled row
And doesn’t let me be.
Answer me!
These seconds pass like moments,
They drown, they surrender to paleness
Like me.
Not even a dream can I embrace anymore,
I can no longer close the eyes of life.
Howl
I howl and scream inside
I submerge the breath of eyelids,
I sink totally pursued.
I leave and I arrive,
All the silver of far-away places I beckon with my fingers.
I scream and I’m torn as I stagger,
Compressing and breaking the rage,
It becomes stronger than me,
The rage struggles within me,
It also gets angry and howls.
I sink as I follow with my gaze the shadow of your silhouette,
I suffocate in my own
Nightmare
That awakes me
From yourself, from myself,
From the seed, from this, from that,
Damn, humble and not.
I am silent although I would tear you apart,
I hold back the last silence,
At the end I just laugh.
My veins don’t wither
As they swell on my forehead,
My skull becomes too crowded a swarm,
My hand shivers as a sieve
That would grind you up
Completely.
I won’t wait anymore,
I will deal you the last blow,
I don’t care,
I don’t care, don’t
Fool yourself.
The last days still last!
Dust
I won’t wait for you,
I won’t beg,
My eyes turn into a river,
A day hurts my whole being.
It is not important to me if you know how to think,
Which way you will lead the judgment.
I hit the edge with my blind eye.
I’d rather not think about myself.
It’s better to flee
From total hell.
You don’t even know
What’s in store for you,
You have to remain as a rock,
Confess that you are strong.
Don’t look down,
You’ll see me in the whirl.
Don’t think about them.
I won’t burn within anymore,
I want to drive away the anger with water.
I see your tired eyes inside me,
I know your eyes,
The awakening sorrow,
The pain you conceal,
Now it’s my turn to be quiet.
I won’t grovel
Before you,
I won’t touch with my thoughts
The hard dusty vault.
I won’t whisper to the morning.
It is four after the full
Moon
And I cannot close my eyes.
My thoughts are in shreds,
Like tired gloomy soldiers,
With bloody washed intoxicated hands.
And it buzzes within my skull,
Within my very soul.
They prepare their diversion,
They put off their operation,
They won’t let me be,
The streams of restless worlds,
Incomprehensible, my own.
While all the tired ones gather their strength,
Exhausted, to serenity I widen my pupils,
Frightened, drowned, suffocated.
Something distracts my thoughts,
Ties them up in a triple entangled row
And doesn’t let me be.
Answer me!
These seconds pass like moments,
They drown, they surrender to paleness
Like me.
Not even a dream can I embrace anymore,
I can no longer close the eyes of life.
Howl
I howl and scream inside
I submerge the breath of eyelids,
I sink totally pursued.
I leave and I arrive,
All the silver of far-away places I beckon with my fingers.
I scream and I’m torn as I stagger,
Compressing and breaking the rage,
It becomes stronger than me,
The rage struggles within me,
It also gets angry and howls.
I sink as I follow with my gaze the shadow of your silhouette,
I suffocate in my own
Nightmare
That awakes me
From yourself, from myself,
From the seed, from this, from that,
Damn, humble and not.
I am silent although I would tear you apart,
I hold back the last silence,
At the end I just laugh.
My veins don’t wither
As they swell on my forehead,
My skull becomes too crowded a swarm,
My hand shivers as a sieve
That would grind you up
Completely.
I won’t wait anymore,
I will deal you the last blow,
I don’t care,
I don’t care, don’t
Fool yourself.
The last days still last!
Dust
I won’t wait for you,
I won’t beg,
My eyes turn into a river,
A day hurts my whole being.
It is not important to me if you know how to think,
Which way you will lead the judgment.
I hit the edge with my blind eye.
I’d rather not think about myself.
It’s better to flee
From total hell.
You don’t even know
What’s in store for you,
You have to remain as a rock,
Confess that you are strong.
Don’t look down,
You’ll see me in the whirl.
Don’t think about them.
I won’t burn within anymore,
I want to drive away the anger with water.
I see your tired eyes inside me,
I know your eyes,
The awakening sorrow,
The pain you conceal,
Now it’s my turn to be quiet.
I won’t grovel
Before you,
I won’t touch with my thoughts
The hard dusty vault.
I won’t whisper to the morning.