Promotion

[Richard]

Hey Oden,
I like what you're going for here. However, I think there are spots where you could strengthen things, which would elevate this piece even higher. I'll go into more detail below:

Promotion

I never thought, -How about starting with just "I never" as the first line to create a stronger contrast with the final line ("I am")?
never! -I am super critical of repetition, and the second "never" here doesn't do much for me. This could be totally just my own language preference, but the second "never" sounds too old timey to me. Why not combine the second and third line into something like: "thought once," which would stress the speaker's isolation further? 
Not once,
that I would reach this pinnacle. -I get the feeling that you're trying to be vague intentionally here, but I would prefer a specific pinnacle to be referenced. Would it make the poem sadder or more ironic if the speaker's pinnacle was something mundane? For example, he was promoted to assistant manager at McDonald's. Just a thought because I get the need for vagueness at times.
I subverted my worth -I like the use of the word "subverted". It works well with the tone of the poem.
for so long
I thought I’d turn into a slug. -I keep thinking how this line would change if instead of "slug," it said "caterpillar". Think of the symbolic implications of the speaker reverting into a caterpillar and being denied becoming a butterfly. Just a thought.
That everything turned out -A specific image instead of saying "everything" would strengthen this line. The word "everything" is too vague for my tastes.
the way it did
makes tears… -Again, I feel like an image is needed here to carry more emotional weight. Maybe something about the speaker's eyes watering, and that would build to the cries near the end of the poem.
I hoped for it so much
for so long -If you combined this line with the previous one, it would make the repetition of "for so long" less obvious.
and now it’s here.
Somehow a face squeezing with blood -I like how this image captures the speaker's distress, but also could be read for excitement.
and uttering cries of intensity -Why not use the image of tears here? It would be easier for people to misinterpret tears as joy instead of disappointment.
shows just how happy
I am.-I quite like this last line as it ends the poem with a perfect statement to describe the speaker's state.

Overall, I think you have a nice first draft here, and I look forward to seeing where you take this from here.

Thanks for the read,
Richard