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.....