Eternal youth, infinite passion, wild joys and wilder pleasures
(a state of unalloyed desirousness) are worth pursuing —
partly because they are unconditional conditions available to you,
and partly because they do, once you get through them,
free up the afternoons considerably.

The literature on libertine youth is unanimous in its promises.
It seems a right proper way to shag one's way
through one's formative years.
The literature declines to mention
whether anyone has read the contract,
which is, in fairness, rather long.

The scholarship further declines to address —
and one has consulted the relevant volumes,
and the illustrations (especially the illustrations) —
the drollery that sets in, quite reliably, afterwards.

Many of these youthful indiscretions become cautionary tales,
small parables of error that one cannot correct,
but can be taught as instructive, unavoidable misadventures to avoid.

Among them, there is often a good story or two worth embellishing
for your tired old friends.