Dear Next Ingenues, this piece was made for you
From a predecessor who had one wore that shoe
of innocence and trust, and hoping all men were true;
May you navigate the world with much more than a clue.

Drown Not In your tears, or sorrow, or regret,
For all this youth, one day, the pain you'll forget.
Keep my hope for your future somewhere in your pocket.
There will be far better memories to be found in this market.

Desire No Indiscretions to be made on your part.
Remain guarded but never shut off wholly your heart.
It's never like the movies, but we're all pieces of art
unfinished forever, but always welcome to restart.

Determine Neither Idiocy, or martyrdom, or the like.
Make the pushy and needy go on a well-deserved hike.
Better protect your peace than have your heart on a spike.
Stand your ground, loud and clear, if you can into a mic.

Do Not Interact with those of unclear intention,
Turn the other way if they're of a degeneration.
Best redirect all of that wide-eyed attention
to a more worthy, appropriate target selection.

Detest No Impossibility of hope in the future.
No wound can't be patched with a metaphorical suture.
While scars may remain as a mark of the mature,
Nothing is set in stone that you won't pick to be sure.

Dare Not Intimidate and undermine your youth
for such a life is, at minimum, an inconvenient truth.
The world may demand eye for eye, and tooth for tooth,
but what is growth if not lives lived ever unsmooth.