Holy shit sometimes you learn things
you really wish you hadn't.

Like the young man's worst nightmare,
where when he was 16 and went to a teen club,
he met another 16 yr old,
and off they went
on a 2 week fling.

And now it's three years later
and when they come to arrest him,
he learns
she wasn't 16 at all,
and congratulations on becoming
the proud father
of a three year old.

Afterwhich, when he asks me if he's in any trouble,
all I can do
is shake my head,
and think back
to when I had just finished high school
and met the girl at the apartment swimming pool
with the baby in her arms she was watching for her sister.

And since I was just barely 18, and she was 16,
it was a very very good thing,
running off to the movies
and getting all cuddly in front of the TV.

Later that week,
laying naked on her sister's family room floor
she confessed she thought it was cool
looking so much older
than her true 13 years,
which put me in a difficult position
to say the least.

I did the right thing back then,
as opposed to my new friend,
in the handcuffs,
who didn't realize
making babies with 12 year olds
does indeed constitute
trouble.

A whole lifetime's worth.