For The Love of Fantasy by Valerie Parente

Nothing has ever made me feel more alive,
than turning a stream of consciousness into fantasy rhymes,
bringing to life dark fairytales that pull at heartstrings,
taking a subtle mood and honing the art of exaggerating.
The beautiful quality of fantasy and daydreamed worlds
is that nothing is literal, it’s all a hypothetical metaphor,
and just because I am the narrator of something literary
does not mean I’ve mistaken my story with reality.
I’m inspired by what’s in my psyche, not the world outside
creating scripts for daydreamers who don’t feel whole in real life.

– Valerie Parente (8-13-2020)