Primordial

The spine, forever sumptuous, sultry, seductive. Unlike other parts of our interior body so often metonymized and metaphorized, the heart, the lungs, the brain, the spleen, crucial organs in collective colloquial culture, stuff of poetry, the hint of curving spine is visible, nascent beneath a layer of thin skin, as though crouched and waiting to erupt. Beneath this slight membrane barrier, our skin, the largest and most domineering of the organs, it seems more tangible, concrete, and then, simultaneously, less so. 

Vertebrate heritage is strong; chicken, chimpanzee, frog, fish, whale, woman, when a gestated fetus, the same arch. At this stage of development, being cooked, in womb or in calcified egg, bodies are without limbs, and all spined creatures are nearly indistinguishable. Throughout our evolution, humans, we have crafted a specific symbolism, spine as steadfast strength, conviction, moral and intellectual fortitude. Our immediate material world, physical and digital, seems so grand, so vast, so rich; amidst a sea of nebula and stars, we are small, a strong spine, unifying, little solace for a mysterious beyond. 

(image taken from Sex on Fire)