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.....