older woman friend

We feel like peers till I remember.  

I was old enough to be fuckin' when  

you were only four. Or so I thought.  

Now I wonder if I was too young.  

My favorite artist’s career began  

the years before you were born,  

just as I had already visited  

an inmate, patted down by guards,  

rushed through metal detectors,  

seen as a potential criminal.  

It wasn’t until you were a preteen  

that I crossed lines into felonies.  

Now I am the older woman friend,  

advocating the straight and narrow,  

though I rarely followed it myself,  

hoping you'll fare better than I.  

But if you’re anything like me,  

you’ll wear blinders and charge ahead.  

Full circle, I understand what all those  

older women friends of mine were feeling

—Maybe living it is the only way to learn.