navy retirement

by: Garland Davis

a quiet knowledge, an

unspoken admission, a stupid goddamn truth

all our great adventures

lie in the past

that that we were has nothing to do with

who we are

but we will never forget that that we were

perhaps our truths no longer hold pleasure

but our fucking truths none the less

that very moment where we finally stopped

growing up and just started growing old

where we donned the cloak of USN(ret)