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.....