in the stitched seams of navy blue,
beneath crests we both earned,
we stand —
not too close,
not too far.

your smile is easy.
mine tries to be.
between us, a thousand things unsaid,
threads pulling,
hands never reaching.

i joke,
you laugh,
we speak in circles —
around what we dare not name.

the world says there are lines,
senior and junior,
instructor and cadet,
and i pretend
the lines don’t matter
until they do.

i wonder if you see it too —
the way the air shifts
when you look at me,
the way my heart trips
then pretends it didn’t.

but this is real life,
not a story,
not a dream,
and some walls
are not meant to be climbed.

so i hold the moment,
press it carefully into memory,
and when you turn away,
i smile like nothing ever happened.

and maybe nothing did.
maybe everything did.