Black Diamond Spine

Writer Caroline Morris hails from Philadelphia but now lives in Dublin after completing her M.Phil in Irish Writing at Trinity College Dublin in 2025 and works as a professional writer/editor. Her work, which includes poetry, fiction, personal essay, and stand-up comedy, typically wrestles with femininity, relationships, and the body. Morris has previously been published by Icarus, Poetry Bus Magazine, The Martello Journal, Green Ink Poetry, The Hyacinth Review, and Beaver Magazine, among others.

Before my bedroom mirror,

I slowly unarch my back,

Undo the feminine curve

That happens when I relax,

I no longer know how to stand

Without tailbone jutting back and chest forward,

Black diamond spine, mogul vertebrae,

Ski jump coccyx into the sky,

I trained myself

To mirror a naturally occurring body

Unnatural to this body,

To make eyes slide down my spine

And elide my stomach,

Only to realize I have become penguin-bellied,

So now I try to crack the ice, stand straight-backed,

Sheer, mountain climber beware,

And still I give adventurers a surmountable slant,

I am yet too frozen in shape,

Waiting and waiting

To thaw back to warm, willowy spring.

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