When I dream
my body doesn’t come with me.
I don’t worry about the where when and why
I simply believe
and it’s already mine.

When I hope
I just need to feel it to know.
Nature doesn’t need to run it by me
like a river that flows
along my conscious stream.

There are hints all around
embedded in the sensory
that when it’s all said and done
we are transcendent beings.

I am not the life I live
through my thoughts
I am the dream that goes on
when they shut off.

– Valerie Parente (7-23-2026)