I introduced the young twenty something to myself at seventeen

and for good measure, them both to me at thirty.

At forty-four I sat back and watched them try to make

small talk, idle chit chat, but not the hint of interrogation

that should be imagined when stuck in a room with your future at sixty,

pompous, arrogant, full of fear and trepidation,

and your ten year old self, who acts pretty much the same.

The glaring glances and accusing stares from the seventeen year old