Boy, someone should start a pub just for retiring men to share their stories. I'm seeing a LOT of them lately as our generation starts retiring at a rate of 10,000 per day.

I liked your piece. Poetry is hard. Many try it, few succeed.

This is good poetry, very good.

It brought back memories of my retirement in 2008. It's way more wrenching than the mythology would lead you to believe.

We moved to a house on a tropical island in Mexico (Cozumel) just 2 blocks from a beach. Turns out, living on a tropical island isn't nearly as pleasant as vacationing on a tropical island.

We stayed 3 years before moving to the mainland and buying a house in Merida. We saw a lot of the newly retired, come and go.

Your typical expat goes home after just 18 months. Many taking a loss on the "retirement house" they just spent a fortune upgrading to "American standards".

What I observed, is that men have a really hard time with the transition.

When most of your identity and sense of self worth is tied up with your work. Losing that, can leave you feeling empty and make everything seem pointless.

You also don't realize how much of your social life you will lose. For men over 30, most of their friends are through work. When you retire, they keep working. Soon, they will move on without you and for most men that means loneliness.

In the expat world, there is a LOT of day drinking among men. Some get through it, and after a few years find their footing.

The successful ones build a new way of life and renegotiate their relationship with their spouse. The two of you start something new and create a retirement version of yourselves.

You let go of your old self, and become the new self that you "wonder" about being.

You date your spouse again, because you are both new people now. You let go of everything from the past and start fresh, carrying no baggage.

Or, you don't.

In our 8 years observing the expat community of retirees in Mexico. We saw lots of alcoholism, drug abuse, depression, isolation, spousal abuse, promiscuity, cheating, and divorce.

Lots of people just implode when they don't have a job to give them structure and a social group. I like your poetry. That's rare.

I wish you good luck. Slainte!