When I Met You I Became Brave
by Valerie Parente
When I met you I became brave
I became someone who moves forward
even though they’re afraid.
It’s not an absence of fear
it’s just fear with a name
because my world became whole
and now that I know the stakes
I choose to live in spite of the fear
I choose to keep going anyway.
And that, to me, is what it means to be brave,
to be someone who looks forward
to the next day.
– Valerie Parente (8-29-2026)
Vigil by Valerie Parente
I mourn all the art
that doesn’t see the light of day.
I mourn all the words
that go unread on a page.
I mourn all the means of expression
that get stifled within.
I mourn all the girls who play dumb
and turn codependent.
I mourn all the universe’s signs
that people ignore.
I mourn all the sullen voices
begging to be heard.
We hold these vigils
for all that are lost
may the light of a trillion candles
illuminate the dark.
– Valerie Parente (8-29-2026)
Victim not Villain
by Valerie Parente
If a woman asks for help
time and time again
pleading and begging
in desperation
and the system ignores her
until she gives in
then she is more of a victim
than she is a villain.
And all these men in suits
are playing willfully ignorant
saying the madness in it all
is the empathetic women
not the failing system
they so pitifully defend.
They’d rather protect the patriarchy
than protect a fellow human.
So which one is it?
Which one is it then?
Hateful monsters?
Hysterical and overreacting?
Either we’re weak minded and vulnerable
or we’re the spawns of Satan
but you can’t have it both ways
then offer no solution.
– Valerie Parente (8-26-2026)
Skeletons (Girls Like Playing 1)
by Valerie Parente
All these women
hooked on GLP1s
playing anorexic
simply for the fun
reaping the side effects
of starvation
brain fog and sunken cheeks
bone deterioration
but it’s okay when they do it
with a doctor’s authorization
a society of zombies
that’s the motivation
no we aren’t supposed to look like skeletons
but Girls Like Playing 1.
– Valerie Parente (8-17-2026)
Energy Never Dies
by Valerie Parente
If energy never dies
then energy never begins
if energy never begins
then energy is everlasting.
I don’t exist for a certain amount of time
I exist
and there is nothing more to define.
– Valerie Parente (8-15-2026)
Survivor
by Valerie Parente
I am not a victim
I am a survivor.
I am not that broken little girl
I am the one who revived her.
I am not my circumstance
I am the good it inspired.
I am not worse for it all
I am the wiser.
I don’t remember the pain you gave me
I remember the power I acquired
because when the darkness came for me
I lit up like a fire.
– Valerie Parente (8-9-2026)
Poiesis
(Life is the Art)
by Valerie Parente
I only fear death
when I think of all the art left unfinished.
But life is no conquest
it has design, that of an artist.
So when their tears fall
like paint, they’ll fall for me
when their tears fall
my greatest masterpiece will be complete.
– Valerie Parente (8-6-2026)
White Noise by Valerie Parente
When I go to sleep
I need the white noise
because if it’s too quiet
I can hear my inner voice
and I don’t want to know
what it says about me
when I’m alone
and no one else can intervene.
When I’m alone
I want to stay disillusioned
that the world is still buzzing
without my movement.
I want to stay unimportant
that my problems are nothing
but a tiny side effect
of a mind that needs numbing.
– Valerie Parente (8-1-2026)
Blue Sky by Valerie Parente
I had a dream
where the blue sky went away
and the earth changed the speed it rotates
and the new speed changed the sky to black
but when the world’s speed came back
we felt the shift on the earth
and the blue sky returned
and every single person who walked outside to see the sky
bursted out and cried.
Nobody could stop themself
from feeling moved
after realizing how grateful they were
that the sky is blue.
– Valerie Parente (7-26-2026)
Transcendent Beings by Valerie Parente
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)
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