Push

[vagabond]

Thank you everyone for the positive, constructive feedback and encouragement.

It seems my penchant for brevity and being mysterious have thwarted my first-try at writing a poem.

I was going to include a sub-title, "Corporate Life", but thought that would give too much away.  
Seems I could've included it to help the reader, and my cause.  

I have a lot to learn about poetry!

"Push"
Curl up - picture an adult in fetal position in response to massive, repeated abuses, in complete despair

Protect yourself 
Your head
Your Heart
your Being - This entire stanza is meant to portray the idea of having to protect one's entire being, physically (nervous system), emotionally, mentally 

The onslaught - is meant to portray the constant demands and lack of respect and consideration.

Push forward 
one step - This stanza is what I do to move past (stay alive in) those moments of overwhelm

Each moment a lost one - Feeling lack of meaningful work
Nothing to sink into - represents feeling a lack of engagement, lack of challenging, interesting work (related to above line)
Nothing to become - absence of creative work (also related to above line)

The torrent continues - It feels never-ending / non-stop (could change this to a different word)

Breathe.  Recall the Reason - a coping mechanism to remind myself why I'm here doing what I'm doing

But death, ever present.  cutting - Death here really is a metaphor for Corporate culture (how it feels to me), death by 1,000 cuts

Each moment a thief
stealing your soul
steeling your soul - This stanza is a continuation of the metaphor and the results of living with "death" always near, threatening my soul.

@bloated_corpse - the two different spellings of stealing/steeling was intentional, to communicate multiple ideas: first, robbery of the soul; second, preparing to deal with something difficult; and/or hardening the soul, growing a thick skin, or becoming callous.

hi persadia! maybe your explanation is the best critique you can ever receive if you try to incorporate it in your poem
i like the topic of that poem.