Opposite ends of the job (Month of Poetry #23)

When that nest turns up empty
as a tureen after pouring the soup,
into the toilet go all thoughts of
fledgling-proofed freedom.
When it comes to being thicker
than water, we’re more of the blood.
Love and rhetoric school us
in opposite ends of the job:
devotion and addiction;
subjective and objectionable;
Mention the word ‘quality’
to some project managers
and you’ll hear an audible groan.
Mention the word ‘babyhood’
to some teenagers’ parents and
you’ll see the timeline has grown.
Children shoot up faster than
any deadline, while mothers and
fathers they simply trail behind,
grumbling that it goes too fast
leaning on the door-frame between
leaving home and a first smile.

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Today's poem is based on suggestions from four people:

• @realnixwilliams: "Mention the word 'quality' to some project managers and you'll hear an audible groan" (Barker & Cole, Brilliant Project Management)
• @timsterne: "After pouring the soup into the toilet" (Lynne Tillmann, American Genius)
• @ernmalleyscat: "they simply trail behind, grumbling that it goes too fast" (Mao Tse-tung, Selected Works Volume 1)
• @matchtrick: "We're more of the blood, love and rhetoric school" (Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead)

This may well be the first time I've had to fit project management into a poem. The odds are it's probably the last, too.