Harmonics by Susan C. Waters (Lucent Dreaming Issue 8)

Harmonics –“Secondary tones which form a component of every musical sound, though they are not distinctly heard.”

I am my own sigh
today, breathing
in and out of my self.

I am the curl
of the nautilus shell,
sealing chambers
within its self,
cementing walls
with its self
so it can rise
in the dark
life-ridden waves
that hum recklessly,
that rock.

All day I’ve arrived
home to my want,
doubled back to it,
wanted it.

I should take
my self by the collar
hold the frame of my face
within my two hands,
fill in the outline
stare myself in the clear eyes
and take hold.

Susan Waters started out as a journalist covering hard news in upstate New York and for 13 years was a magazine editor and writer at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, College of William and Mary. Her publishing credits are extensive. She has won 10 prizes in poetry and has been nominated twice for the Push Cart Prize in Poetry. Her chapbook Heat Lightning was published in 2017 by Orchard Street Press. Currently, she is Professor Emeritus at New Mexico Junior College.

Buy issue 8 today.

Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.