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.....