Looking Back and Looking Forward (Age 3)

The 42 year-old me,
   looks at 3 year-old me,
   and sees:

The blond hair,
    that eventually turned brown,
    thinned after college,
    and finally fell out.

The big acorn eyes,
    that still change colors,
    facilitating between blue and green,
    a calm ocean, a verdant glen.

The canyons under the eyes,
    that have grown deeper, and more pronounced,
    tired from the constant climb,
    of a career that runs like a hamster's wheel,
    publish or perish,
    wash-rinse-repeat.

The smooth forehead,
   free from worry,
   now wrinkled with the concerns of:
       a child's learning disability,
       a child's plunging self-esteem,
       a mortgage payment,
       an aging car,
       parents growing older,
       time passing too quickly.

The thin-lipped smile,
   that still grows across an older face,
   now with deeper laugh lines,
   from years of:
      laughing easily,
      finding funny,
      and appreciating life's levity.

The 42 year-old me,
    looks back at 3 year-old me,
    knowing that life is half over,
    and yearning to make the second half--
         matter.