– Homage to the 21st Century Parent –
It’s not just the wash cycle of life they’re pushing against,
it’s the constant early morning tears,
spilled rice bubbles and tiny-teeth-pocked-apples,
tepid coffee in a PC KeepCup,
missing school socks and broken laces
five minutes before take-off,
little arms squeezed into too-tight car-seat belts,
a second pass at finding the garage remote,
one minute past take-off and a hop, skip, and a jump inside for the hand-bag-come-baby-bag-come-hold-all-the-overripe-bananas-bag,
the school drop-off,
the day-care-peel-little-fingers-off-their-pant-leg-goodbyes and
the parking lot traffic crawl into
a run-of-the-mill paycheck –
and we wonder why they
slow-shoe-shuffle along the corridors, red-rims
scanning jumbled
thesis-worthy emails, signing off on
excessive procurements, glossing over T’s & C’s,
caught face-down napping during AGMs and another needless meeting to discuss another meaningless task and
playing phone tag with HR to get some downtime so they can do
it all again.
Miriam E. Miles 