The Pain Of Pushing Poem by Richard Quinby

Push!
Push!

A scene we all know
If not from real life,
Then on some movie screen
Or TV show:

A woman,
Cervix dilated,
In the throngs of birth
And that voice
Urging,
Pleading,
Demanding:

Push!
PUSH!

Life comes
From that
Pushing

I remember a May trip to
The Smokey Mountains.
Late afternoon
The trail
To Clingmens Dome fog covered under
Dark gray skies
My brother, David and I
Racing nightfall.
Legs burning,
Hearts pounding,
Smoker lungs gasping for air
Struggling to keep up with Mike
I thought:
Push!
Don’t stop, Push!
Keep
Pushing on

A few years later
We spent long days
And entire weekends
On Red Rock
At the tail-end of the
Cumberland plateau.
A hundred and fifty feet of climbing rope,
A few carabineers and some nylon webbing.

And each time we fell
Stopped short
By the rope
We tried again
And we pushed
And we pushed
Again

People
Have loved me
Made me feel
Like someone good
And I have
Always
Pushed them away

Life is
After all
About
Pushing

(January 2005)