The Free Tower

Squinting up into it, the sun directly above,
it didn’t look much like a tower, but more like
a scaffold standing out on its own, maybe
thirty feet high, built with four telephone poles
braced by Xs of weathered gray two-by-fours,
with a staircase inside with flights of plank steps
up, up, up and around, and a platform on top
with a sun-fiery opening through which one was
to climb to look out upon what we guessed was
the flattest of landscapes in all four directions,