Steam Engine

there are days, sometimes weeks,
when the attack hits you from every possible angle,
firing at you with the speed and precision
of a boiler room piston.

and if you're not a part of the steam flow
everything pushes against you.

until finally, used and wasted,
you're forced up through the cylinder, 

and out the stack with all the
smoke, the soot, and the embers

with not a bit of form left to you but

vapor
and sky.