What's Wrong

99 and a Failure

You called yourself 99%

because you were a mark short of perfect

but inside, you had dug up paper upon paper

of destabilizing failures

of F's, and red pen ink

your handwriting is barely legible

underneath your messy corrections

trying to change who you were

but only staining the paper with your tears

you thought you were okay

but history exams crawled onto you

demanding your mentality

in exchange for success

so you signed the paper

with bloody fingers

knowing that another flunking grade

could turn a 99 to grime