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.....