Backbone

The seaweed scribbles the sand like blown ink,
A Rorschach test, charting the innermost thoughts of the storm.
The sea heaves and spits its haul out on the shore;
Wings furled and splayed,
Tails curled and claws splintered.
After weeks, the ocean’s spine
Hunches over the strand line;
Bones picked, plucked, restructured
By each breathing tide;
Fueling the curve of some great mythical beast
That rises and falls silently, away in the distance.

-Larissa Reid

Bios And Links

-Larissa Reid

A freelance science writer by trade, Larissa has written poetry and prose regularly since 2016. Notable publications include Northwords Now, Silk & Smoke, Green Ink Poetry, Fenacular, Black Bough Poetry Anthologies, and the Beyond the Swelkie Anthology. She had a poem shortlisted for the Janet Coats Memorial Prize 2020. Larissa is intrigued by visible and invisible boundary lines in landscapes – geological faultlines, myth and reality, edge-lines of land and sea. Based on Scotland’s east coast, she balances her writing life with bringing up her daughters. Larissa is a founder member of the Edinburgh-based writing group, Twisted::Colon.