the  spire             
  
  once upon a time, there was a     
   benevolent spire, towering well  
  above our tallest trees. it was   
  clad in white scales, and shaped  
         liked  a   mushroom.       
       we  loved  it  dearly.       
  
   it  predated us  by many years,  
  and we did not know its original  
   builders.  they  had used  its   
  hollow  body for  many  strange   
  purposes - a womblike place  of   
   gestation, a storage  of strage  
  fluids, a temple to some kind of  
     arcane    deity.               
  
    we   were  grateful  for  its   
  presence, and  honored  it  the   
    only  way  we  knew  how:  by   
         breaking       in.         
  
                                          
                                          
  
  this place we  called  our city:  
  wavy and  fractured, with  each   
  courtyard on a different height,  
   roads  becoming  roofs becoming  
  drains. and  some places,  like   
  the  spire, nobody  had accessed  
  for many  years. once its  walls  
  are  just  too  high,  and  the   
  internal routes to labyrinthine,  
  a  place among others  is easily  
             overlooked.            
  
  so,  basically, that  summer the  
  four of us snuck and climbed and  
  crawled for weeks, searching for  
  a secluded place to do drugs and  
  play music on  our  handhelds.    
   instead  we  found vast  lungs   
   drained   of  their  catalyst    
  sludge,  and a birds-eye view to  
  make sense  of  our roamings for  
          years   to   come.        
  
  a  central  spine,  a staircase   
   around it,  the seven toroidal   
   lungs stacked  outside, and the  
  control room on top. the sockets  
  for its eyes. the smaller spires  
   for  radiating   consciousness   
            invitations.            
  
                                          
  
  in twenty fourteen, the tower is  
   toppled and  eaten by machines.  
  after a while, something new is   
   conjured  in its place.  it's a  
  tiny maw at first, shorter  than  
   us,  and we  let  it  be.  our   
  journeys  still end at its feet.  
  
  but  then we  are betrayed.  the  
   new tower eats  us. others  are  
  sucked inside. new buildings are  
   manifested overnight, only  to   
   disappear in the  evening fog.   
   for  a  while its some kind of   
  timeshare scam. goons are placed  
  outside, and we  get beaten up a  
   few  times,  and  stop  going.   
  
   iirc  it's currently  owned  by  
  some energy drink baron who uses  
  it to hold  all his fourty eight  
             cars.....