AT THE WATER TOWER

Standing like a sentinel on guard, the water tower gives a feeling of permanence to a town. Almost like a lighthouse, it may not guide, but it secures. It says, "This is home. This is my city."

I like water towers. I like the big ketchup bottle water tower in Collinsville, IL and the orange and black school colors one next to the MTV campus. I like the old ones, some skinny as a praying mantis. I also like the brand new ones, white as cotton but brighter after that fresh new coat lacquered on for prominent display.

What purpose they serve is for someone else to explain. I know: they hold water in their abdomen tanks. But how does one get the water out? And why do they have to be so elevated?

Ah, but that stuff's for the engineers and scientists. The poet in me just sees the calling. The beacon. The stability that a water tower brings.