Poetry by Giovanni Mangiante

           ​Robert Couse-Baker CC



surviving 2017

surrounded by weeping ghosts
who begged me to join them every night,
i found out there was something sadder
and stronger than all the laughter
left in my heart.

and hardened in black tar,
smelling of bourbon-nights,
i thought too many times
of making
my way out through 
the window,
but i held 
on.

it might have been art.
it might have been my father.
it might have been my dog.

i don’t know what it was.
i no longer care to find out.

i’m simply glad it happened.

​
​

Giovanni Mangiante is a bilingual poet from Lima, Peru. His work appears in dozens of journals such as Studi Irlandesi, Three Rooms Press, Silver Birch Press, As It Ought to Be, Shot Glass Journal, FEARLESS, Open Minds Quarterly, and more. He has upcoming poems in The Piker Press, Sledgehammer Lit, and is currently working on his first book of poems. He lives with his dog, Lucy. In writing, he found a way to cope with BPD.

---