– 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.
