I remember my teachers
would tell me
I would amount to nothing
if I didn’t change
my attitude,
that I needed commitment
in order to succeed
in life.
I failed all the courses
and ended up dropping out,
but many years after,
I found myself
in front of a shitty laptop,
playing Skyrim for the first time
in the lowest possible
resolution,
trying to find 30 goddamn
crimson ninroots
inside of Blackreach
as I soaked in my own sweat.
My time to prove
every single one of those fuckers
wrong
had arrived.
Giovanni Mangiante is a poet from Lima, Peru. He has work published in Anti-Heroin Chic, Horror Sleaze Trash, Heroin Love Songs, Rat’s Ass Review, Three Rooms Press, Fearsome Critters, The Raven Review, Cajun Mutt Press, Crêpe & Penn, Open Minds Quarterly, and more. He has upcoming work in Newington Blue Press. In writing, he found a way to cope with BPD.