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Gabriel burnS Feb 2017
Are you aware,
did you know,
have you been told
you've got killer voice,
leaving me no choice
but preemptive action...
Let's ensure mutual destruction
of clothes;
my thoughts
made those illegal
in a secret meeting;
that security council
in my head...
while the heart was busy beating,
doing its own thing...
Captives in my cells
twisted and bled out
their escape plans...
Excuse me, got sidetracked,
what's your name again?
I'm twenty-three
but only if you switch the digits.
For a high-functioning whatever,
I must say I'm admirably sane
but you pull the wrong lever,
and the lyrics spill with the melody
breaking the levee.
So what do you do for a living?
That's adorable.
How are we still sitting
and talking here?
You thought I'd be taller;
I was expecting you'd run off screaming.
Let's drink to that, the small victories!
Time will tell what's next
if only we listen,
instead of reading more text,
unless we're OK with missing out.
God, my thoughts do talk loud!
When did your face get so near?
Lips go "clink", and eyes go "Cheers!"
6.6k · Oct 2018
Tar
Gabriel burnS Oct 2018
Tar
I’m not broken
I’m a puzzle not to be solved
I’m a bird of…
Preying on rain…
But the clouds elude my webs
I’m the underside of an antisocial umbrella
What with the moisture-averse lovers nowadays
I shoo them off and twist my spokes
And finally I’m no longer pretending completeness for the sake of my surroundings
Because She comes clad timeless
Comes with the thunder
And She tastes like all or nothing
Translation into Bulgarian:

Катран

Не съм счупен
Пъзел, но не за подреждане
Аз съм птица…
Хищна за дъжда…
Но облаците се изплъзват от моите мрежи
Аз съм сухата страна на необщителен чадър
Какво им има на избягващите влага влюбени тия дни
Пъдя ги и се извивам в спиците
И най-сетне не трябва да имитирам цялост заради обкръжението
Защото Тя идва цялата в безвремие
Пристига с гръм на мълния
С дъх на всичко или нищо
5.0k · Nov 2018
The Room Chooses its Key
Gabriel burnS Nov 2018
Ash outside
Sparks - encased
Just deny
If the world peeks
Through the keyhole

For it was meant for
It was meant for One

Whose eyes unlock the door
...barefoot 'cross the threshold
5.0k · Oct 2017
Assault
Gabriel burnS Oct 2017
Too good and yet true
Too beautiful
To taste
Without falling in daze
Without following
Delirious
An aroma trail of craving
On the back of my tongue
I’m getting equal measures
Of heaven and hell
Perfectly balanced

My eyes are my traitors
Plotting to open the gates
Sending stowaway warriors
Whom I never gave orders
To slip behind walls
Of thickest black pupils
In the Trojan horse
That my eager look is

And gazes are bridges
Unwillingly
Supporting the siege
Of epiphanies
You and me
Caught in our ambush
Completely surrounded by Us
4.7k · Aug 2017
Skin
Gabriel burnS Aug 2017
I don't wear smiles
like clothes,
like you wear makeup

I don't choose in aisles,
in stores,
just for the occasion

You can try
and you'd fit right in my shoes
but I'd never fit in yours

I don't wear jewels
but I'd love
to wear your denial
mmm,
your scent for awhile...
4.4k · Dec 2018
Shadow Spill
Gabriel burnS Dec 2018
The light tail of the tail light leaves me blue in the dark hues
… when it carries away what I belong to…
Unfolding the tar-black sky of asphalt, the longest arm of missing you…
My body is now the distance between us, big and empty,
The bigger, the emptier, thinner than air…
As time piles up, my ladders turn into pointless meters
Measuring the ratio of nothing in everything
...telltale
3.9k · Jul 2018
Dark Gray
Gabriel burnS Jul 2018
I felt it crumbling
I felt it falling with the rain
The invisible
I felt it falling
Bits and pieces
Shreds and ribbons
The clothing of my wings
As God unpacked the wraps with haste
Like a restless child
Tearing down the gift
Together with the wrapping

I felt it falling
Scorching on the skin
Of frail reveries
Soaking wet I felt the taste
Of gasoline
And drowned the rain
Into my eyelids
Gabriel burnS Oct 2017
I never thought you'd drive a wedge
into my ribs
and touch the heart within

I never thought I'd lie awake
and
dream up something real

I never thought I'd keep away
from harm
for too long

I never thought I'd witness walls
fall apart and
crumble in my feet

I never thought I'd believe
in myself again
take up these fragile wings

I don't believe in an enemy
replacing something dear
so I stray away from every

smile that ends up near
to keep what's left of sanity
as thoughts weep silently
autumn
3.2k · May 2017
Compass
Gabriel burnS May 2017
in the east
there is sand, and fire, and oath;
in the west
there is another plague
of the mind and the soul;
in the north
the solitude of every snowflake
can be felt;
in the south
the ancients are rotting
forgotten because
their stories don't sell
I wanted to make it cultural but it turend out political somehow...
3.1k · Sep 2018
Live Hues
Gabriel burnS Sep 2018
I’m raining backwards in the morning
You are the rainbow; how do I reach you
Sunbeams entwine with rain drops
And at dusk I’m falling back down
Painting encounters
Past and future
Impetuses
Onto stars and clouds that
Dream awake unblinking
The atlas of your lips
A crude translation from my original in Bulgarian...

{8)
3.1k · Aug 2018
Comes Around
Gabriel burnS Aug 2018
away from the touch of salted caramel
my bones cut deep into the flesh of today
like all other tissue beneath the skin
is undressed from the whole
melting,
finding the only way
home
to you
vapor-cumulus-rain-skin
keeping my promise
to reach you again
3.1k · May 2018
Something Still...
Gabriel burnS May 2018
I hadn’t spoken for so long
a tiny spider had moved in
at the corner of my mouth
eating my words

my tongue laying limp like a
slain dragon at the bottom of the cave
like a king who passed away right there
on his throne having given the last order

my arms almost as still as uncontested borders
only palms carry out maneuvers
and fingers patrol the manifestation of expressions
commanded by thought fibers
like puppet soldiers

and the lines in the sand are words
born of themselves
telltale heartstrings stalking now the realm
just outside the eye orbit
2.6k · Jun 2018
Rise Above
Gabriel burnS Jun 2018
don’t let all those flowers deceive you
clouding judgment with flower dust
and the charm of colorful aroma
they have agendas of their own
and you are but a step in their ladder
2.5k · Sep 2018
Half-Eight
Gabriel burnS Sep 2018
screeching blackness
the music is over
the veil has fallen
I am the needle running in circles
spinning its wheels
running on empty
for hours on end
for days ongoing
waiting for the hand to
tear through the shadows
the white noise
flip the vinyl world
and guide me on track
where all I touch
is your songs
where curtains are wings
and my sky is your melody
2.4k · Apr 2017
Communing
Gabriel burnS Apr 2017
as we talk
around in circles
words fall
******* silence
2.2k · Jul 2017
Embodiment
Gabriel burnS Jul 2017
in your eyes
the sky is twice as deep
and on your lips,
the sun, its hottest yet
2.2k · Nov 2018
Arrival
Gabriel burnS Nov 2018
… A moth whispering confessions high towards the ceiling… worshiping a false god and its dooming light… as the moth wings are burning with unrequited love… flapping self-fulfilling prophecies...
My wings are growing and I wonder… are you to be my lightbulb...
2.1k · Oct 2018
Incognito
Gabriel burnS Oct 2018
cat-eyed passion
lurking in the tall grass
all ears for years
but I knew...
Caught a whiff
early on
and she still stayed hidden
teasing and teasing
looking for the right time
such alien patience
and dedication
equal only to madness
2.0k · Dec 2016
Bowling
Gabriel burnS Dec 2016
We bowl and yet
no ball is thrown;
our gazes roll
through lanes unseen

two ends,
two pairs
of eyes;

whoever wins,
scatters all
the thoughts
on the other end
like pins
2.0k · May 2017
Note to Self
Gabriel burnS May 2017
sugar is bad for you
especially sugary thoughts
you cannot afford

like June is majestic
undulating ozone
from cumulus bones
in its flesh of light blue
masquerading airborne
around the skin
that breathes with beats
progressively arrhythmic
high from the feeling

but beware
for June hides its predators
beneath those waves
elating charm, its Siren song;
Because deadlines,
blood thirsty words
like “expiration”,“elapsing”,
and “due in”,
lurk with sharpened teeth
stalking the smallest of joy-fish

And all of this contrast
is masked with such skill
it remains underrated,
only frustrating to Juners,
for they know its extremes
and how smiles
cover anxiety


1.9k · Oct 2017
Fading Out and In
Gabriel burnS Oct 2017
The Sun is growing distant
The Earth is turning in her bed
Waking up in an instant
With her nightgown
White in the cold
Opting to sleep it through
And dream herself up, green
And breathe proximity, serene
1.6k · Dec 2016
Cold War Warming
Gabriel burnS Dec 2016
too long your lips have stared
into the body of my thoughts,
studying the patterns
and the features,
deciphering the blueprints,
my irrational being

...those petals,
their textures burning in the color,
popping out like embers, fed
every regulated breath

you are compelled
to lick away the dryness,
wipe the prints and traces,
put out the flames covertly...
but make it look casual:
you cannot be caught spying;
or the government of words
denies everything,
severing the strings,
abandoning its secret desire
behind enemy lines,
to be captured, questioned,
and tortured
by your very own
collaborationist conscience
1.6k · Dec 2018
In Fall with You
Gabriel burnS Dec 2018
In time I saw
That there are many Autumns
Yet one and only one
is Fall
And summer fell for you season-less
1.6k · Sep 2018
The Pick
Gabriel burnS Sep 2018
she said she was broken
needed fixing
came for the fix
I said “look honey,
I don’t do clockwork”
1.6k · Jan 2017
Tool
Gabriel burnS Jan 2017
your words are razor blades
and I have seen you
shaving others
enough to know
I'd never let you be my barber

for if your mind,
the hand that guides them,
were as sharp,
you'd see that Occam's razor
is not a proper tool of art
1.6k · Apr 2018
Margarita for Two
Gabriel burnS Apr 2018
The salt envies my lips,
jealous of your tongue
when it wants more
longing for yours
craving slow soft moist caress

It melts in the sharedness,
sparkles in our breath,
a crystalline melt of desire
stretching the flavor in timelessness
fusing in sweet a figure of eight
of our tongues’ thirst

It speaks our secret language
teaching new grammar;
it weaves our thoughts in scarves
spilling cool ambrosia,
warm in our veins
... I didn't know there were ways to make the taste of salt last longer and softer... |)
1.5k · Jun 2017
PrEying
Gabriel burnS Jun 2017
Mantis, you are mad because
After our dates my head is
Standing on my shoulders;
Such a disappointment,
Should’ve been disjointed
By your love,
But nature does anomalies
Not necessarily
Related to anatomy
Can we still be friends?
Does it work that way?
I don’t think we’re enemies
Even after injuries are caused,
Yet I’m not automated
In behavior,
Hanging up on risky calls,
I am not a savior;
Secret powers: common sense.
Forgive me if I’m on the fence,
Known so many lose their heads
Don’t look back and thanks for all!
...mantises, a topic I read about recently...
1.4k · Apr 2017
Wish
Gabriel burnS Apr 2017
Thoughts take off
From dandelion head
I lost them
but found one
In the palm
of your hand
...make a wish
1.4k · Feb 2017
Backlit
Gabriel burnS Feb 2017
**** all artificial lights
no natural causes but
natural darkness
fake lights for true dark
blackest of blacks
like charred tree bark
leave but one imposter
glowing in the gloom
just pale enough
to write onto
and that's my door to you
a piece of text from several months ago;
a low-quality first attempt at audio: https://soundcloud.com/blaze-ashful/1st-2-chord-background
1.3k · Apr 2017
Isolation
Gabriel burnS Apr 2017
Cooking beneath the shell
The meat of my thoughts
Like a hermit crab
The boiling of my dreams
Escaping as high-pressure steam
Through tiny fissures
In dye-shifting armor

I never opened up
I never bent or broke
and never cracked
But now is never
All I have, I’m giving back

Plug your ears
To the deafening screams
That no amount of heating
Can make edible
You are the hardness of my shell
Omnipresent and Incredible
I wanted to post this earlier, at the time of writing but I guess it had to ferment a bit.
1.3k · Mar 2017
Goes Around
Gabriel burnS Mar 2017
Trickle,
You are picturesque abstract
Elongating droplet stroke
Smiling on surfaces
Fondling oxidized tissue
Making love to ozone
From afar

Trickle
I am painfully patient
deliberate witness
to your
becoming
A river

Breaking my o-zone of comfort
Vapor distorting solidity
Fall back unto me
Bring back the salt
that I squandered
But don’t
Deliver this clarity
razor-sharp
Through the fabric of irises
So impossibly deep
In the flesh of my
Indigo sky
Embedding eternally
That state-shifting
Thought foreign body
Lost in the cobwebs
Of amber-caught impulses
1.2k · Apr 2017
Blabbering
Gabriel burnS Apr 2017
double long, triple-strong caffeine pinch
hopping round
cardiovascular road strips;
its hues are bloodshot contrasts
blending well in peripheries
alienating sources
of scarlet origin;
eyelips swallow eyeballs;
impossible to bite on,
for their teeth are on the outside
pulling punches,
stopping short of eye-lashing out

*

the ellipse of Your eyelips
swallows my irises
siamese twin suns
sky-connected
at the luminous breeze
falling asleep on my chest
vivid abreast
the pyre of lungs
1.2k · Jun 2017
Morning Star Protocol
Gabriel burnS Jun 2017
first contact scenario
close encounters of the third kind
well how many
kinds are there anyway

a peaceful delegation
or an alien invasion

because alien we are
under threat of war

your burning desires
my best intentions
a clash
of unspeakable dimensions

this is not a game
we are
one misinterpretation
away
from mutual annihilation

you’d better tread lightly
I know I will
1.2k · Mar 2017
Behind the Eyes
Gabriel burnS Mar 2017
The buttery eye of a butterfly caught my sigh slipping shy to the windowsill where your lips spill insomnia powering watermills undefeated by the modern Don Quixotes. My muse breathes in higher frequency... I'm telling her to stop... Stop. My thoughts don't rely on my lungs anymore for they have organs of their own... as well as separate agendas. They paint you psychedelicate, frail and yet invincible. Murderously vulnerable. Violently tender. The hunted is the hunter. The femme fatale.
windmills, watermills, who cares :)
1.2k · Dec 2018
Embodied In Bloom
Gabriel burnS Dec 2018
bare bore-feet tread as one, the ore of Eurekan stone,
bearing belief in the Philosopher’s;
drilling the marrow of the underskull mine
never stopping to wipe a forehead,
and yet, never a chore
as the springing of sweat
dried up long ago
drained with the dread
1.2k · Dec 2016
Physics or Chemistry?
Gabriel burnS Dec 2016
bodies are galaxies;
and within ours
constellations
go all rogue in seconds,
talking to each other
without
permission and consent;
without our knowledge;
there is a plot
behind our backs,
a conspiracy
of unexplored possibilities;
and like plastic dolls
at the hands of gods
we are drawn so close,
a clash ensues
of comfort zones
with the aid of gravity;
we'll regain control,
of course,
just before impact
1.2k · May 2017
Change of Policy
Gabriel burnS May 2017
“several wolves were introduced...
...rejuvenating vegetation
with the deer henceforth
avoiding those areas”

and now behold sprouting grass
and blossoming branches;
makes you think whether balance
always leans on a quota of violence

I start seeing in my park
the flora is suffering
I’ve let in too many deer
and they’ll eat everything offered;
they know not when to stop
leaving the trees bare *****,
chewing the bark
just because it is there.
And I'm sorry my deer
but our gardens could use some wolves
for the good of the land
(but we’re) learning the hard way,
seeing the truth in
“Too much of a good thing cannot be a good thing”
either the wolves come in, or a habitat collapse
Gabriel burnS Aug 2017
You asked to have me too?

I’m a lilac, after all… or were I?
You don’t believe, that until recently
I smelled and bloomed

Greedy hands were reaching out to me
They picked and tore, and took my bloom away
My odor… stolen by the wind

My leaves…
A mist desired them, eyes watering
And so I gave
But to a cloud she ran away
And built a nest from them
My branches…
Caressed by frost-bitten beggar
She too asked to have them
I gave again
She put them to the fire

You asked to have me too?

I’m a lilac, after all… or were I?
Ever seen the aroma and the bloom of sin?

Your eyes perhaps caught too much light or tears?
Are you disappointed; maybe bored? Don’t go.
It seems there’s nothing left for you but you are wrong

Beneath your feet, buried deep within the soil
My root is dwelling waiting for the spring
The last and best of me
I hid and kept it just because
I’m a lilac, after all… or were I?
If you’d like I’ll show you how I used to bloom

Where are you going

Wait

Don’t you want me anymore
Author: Valeri Dimitrov; translation from Bulgarian: Gabriel burnS;
This translation was done with the special permission of the author.

Original poem:

Люляк

И ти ли ме поиска?

Все пак люляк съм. Или пък... бях?
Не вярвяш, че до скоро и ухаех, и цъфтях...

Към мене алчно се протягаха ръцете.
Беряха, късаха... отнесоха ми цветовете.
Уханието ми? Откраднаха го ветровете.

Листата ми?
Поиска ги една мъгла със капещи очи.
Дадох ги.
А тя при облака избяга. С листата ми гнездо си сви.
Клоните ми?
Премръзналата просякиня ги погали.
И тя ме молеше.
Дадох ги.
А тя със клоните ми огън си запáли.

И ти ли ме поиска?

Все пак люляк съм. Или пък... бях?
Виждала ли си разцъфнал и ухаещ грях?

Май нещо свети във очите ти. Сълзиш?
Разочарована? Или си отегчена? Недей да си вървиш!
За тебе нищо не било останало? - Грешиш!

В краката ти, там долу във пръстта,
Коренът ми упорито чака пролетта.
Последното от мен, но най-доброто.
Скрито. Тайно... Пазих го, защото...
Все пак люляк съм. Или пък... бях?
Искаш ли да ти покажа как цъфтях?...

Къде отиваш?
......................
Чакай!
...............................
Не ме ли искаш вече?...  ,  ,, , ,
,, , ,  , ,,   , ,   ,,
, , ,, , ,,,
, , ,
,
1.2k · Aug 2019
(be)spoken
Gabriel burnS Aug 2019
An emergentsea
Real
eyes
See thisease
Come
ply beneath
The softestsign
We carri
on
Un-fin(e)d allyou’re
In
sight
Carefully delivered
1.1k · Oct 2018
Adrift
Gabriel burnS Oct 2018
Yellow,
October LEAVES
A word slips out
The door
To haunt my trees
Pleas in gusts of
DON’T
1.1k · Feb 2017
Disaster
Gabriel burnS Feb 2017
my eyes speak out a narrow street
notorious for fatal accidents
scorching everyone involved
leaving impertinent witnesses
hence silent gaze shies away

exposure, self-denied
to keep from harm
avoid collateral

and not just eyes but words
they slip they cost they hurt
the best the most
bitten tongue cannot dissolve
no, bitten lip cannot contain
boiling recklessness

come close meet walls
cruelly transparent
self-defused bomb
a self-contained woe
window shopping
a blink away from shattered showcase
teach this heart how to read
for it only knows now how to write
1.1k · Jul 2017
Kept
Gabriel burnS Jul 2017
Irreversible impulse
You are sealed in amber
Embedded in my chest
As a jewel
With momentum surging in your eyes
Bringing back the sparks
To the fireplace
Where shadows dance with flames
Vividly reliving the experience
Lighting up the forge of the wordsmith
Awakening within me
Feeding air to the embers
worn
1.1k · Nov 2018
Relative Veil
Gabriel burnS Nov 2018
Winter swallowed the Sun
like a pill refusing to go down

My system needs the coolant
of putting distance between myself
and the global glow-ball
To avoid the catastrophic kind of melting
(s)wordplay
1.1k · Jul 2017
Bare
Gabriel burnS Jul 2017
departure
                arrival
the climber
                 the diver
     the heat
                 the chills
     the beat
                 the thrill
         depth
                 moisture
        height
                 closure
another old one... I guess it doesn't get any more abstract than that...
Gabriel burnS Jun 2017
I don't want to be
a heartbroken Daedalus.
Let me have those wings
so I could be
the one to burn
carefree
into the sun
selfish, ignorant, oblivious.
Not grieving and delirious.
Incinerate this youth,
this dream to the root;
an instant ball of flames,
so but memory remains.

* * *

Cut my wings before I'm high
Are you my Daedalus?
We're not mature enough to fly.
I'm not your Icarus.
I'd rather be the liver
of Prometheus,
not himself who did deliver
hope to those oblivious,
misusing now his fire...

* * *

I'd rather be the liver of Prometheus
than live in this illusion of deliverance
The more you know, the more you're faced with ignorance;
and ignorance defeats you with experience

I'd rather be the wings of Icarus
and know the smell of burning feathers
than have a tomb stone like the one of Sisyphus,
no longer strong to push it from the nether
3 oldies sharing a common theme (no point in separating them)
1.0k · Jan 2017
Baptism By Fire?
Gabriel burnS Jan 2017
sparks are spilling
from your eyes
you sprinkle them
around,
ignite our hearts
in scorching waves,
we drown

can there be one
you'll save;
what fate awaits
survivors reaching shore;
they go to war
and time will tell
who burns out
and who
remains

(amongst the embers
a victor shall be named)

and even though
I never cease to burn
the last to stand
I see too late
the game is rigged
and charcoal hands
with ashes cold return
960 · Dec 2016
Monochrome
Gabriel burnS Dec 2016
They breathe you in,
my charcoal dreams,
and into life
their ashes bleed.

And everything is canvas
frozen into silence,
letting go of notions, old,
anticipating me
to set flame to the cold
and sear through the sheen
of diamonds in their numbness.
943 · Jun 2017
A Mere Moment
Gabriel burnS Jun 2017
Lightning is the fleeting thorn of blooming thunder
The self-erasing crack into the sky window
The laceration of the clouds that left no scar
And sealed itself instantly
And bled to life bountiful
Shifting afloat in deep grey

*

The lightning showed me the way
To the burning tree
The clouds were dark with worry
That I would not see
The thunder told me to hurry
Before the earth swallows me
a nice song that I found to go along: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ll5GuR5CNU
936 · Dec 2016
White Cloak
Gabriel burnS Dec 2016
My summer smells like deadlines,
for lifelines **** themselves
sometime near spring,
with the serrated rust
of misconstrued martyrdom,
they wither fall
into a ghost who lingers
flaking slow
among the fallen ribbons,
former clothes
torn and thrown away
for the sheets of winter
*original*

My summer smells like deadlines,
for lifelines **** themselves
sometime near spring,
with the serrated rust
of misconstrued martyrdom,
leaving fall a ghost that lingers
naked and alone
among the fallen ribbons,
former clothes
torn and thrown away
for the sheets of winter
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