Shape Shifter

November 16, 2024March 7, 2025Leave a comment

Shape Shifter by Valerie Parente

Have you ever heard
of the Shape Shifter?
She changes form
to fit her mister.

Shape Shifters are not born
they are girls once raised
by those who were supposed to
show them praise.

No one protected her
or taught her to question
why man’s needs come first
and hers come second.

Here lies red dotted lines
and the pen is his
it’s a calculated path
so she does not trip.

The Shape Shifter has no passion
just sheer dread
that she’ll have to confront
the girl in her head.

And if you asked her
who she really is
she wouldn’t have an answer
aside from “someone’s Mrs.”

A Bad Precedent

November 10, 2024November 24, 2024Leave a comment

A Bad Precedent by Valerie Parente

Everybody in the present tense
says, “You set a very bad precedent,”
two polar opposite sides polarized
wanting so badly to be ostracized
and never compared to the other side
as if one could ever see themself as the bad guy
when in reality each person is the protagonist
in their own book of ethics and common sense.

But what if I told you, you share the same frustration
and picked a side out of sheer desperation?
Why can’t you see, you’re not so different after all
when it comes to the problems you want to solve?
You are more alike than you realize
and I wish everyone just realized it’s a lie
that the content of character is black and white.

Everybody points fingers to who they think sets the “bad precedent”
acting with the same exact anger, just a different side of the fence.
And the truth is your anger says less about who you oppose
and more about the system that failed you both.

Dear Darkling

October 26, 2024March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Dear Darkling by Valerie Parente

You are the symbol of pain becoming beauty
featherless wings
hope withstanding mood swings
sprouting from a spine
where stance is a nuisance
so you arch your back
like the moon and its exuberance
and though you come from the aether
your experience is human;
so fear not, dear darkling
you have become the blueprint
of finding beauty in darkness
now the teacher, once the student.

As above, you knew your worth
so below, you went and proved it.

– Valerie Parente (10-26-2024)

Seaglass

October 11, 2024Leave a comment

Seaglass by Valerie Parente

You are seaglass;
look how far you’ve come
from a jagged past,
when they tried to treat you
like you were trash,
but the world had plans
other than that,
using ebbs and flows
so you could adapt,
soften the blows
because you’re seaglass;
you drifted afar
but then you came back,
softer than before
because you’re seaglass.

– Valerie Parente (10-11-2024)

Goddess

September 28, 2024September 28, 2024Leave a comment

Goddess by Valerie Parente

We call it the will of God
though women bear that cross
for it is them who represent
the concept of consequence
and if the world was honest
we’d say it came from a Goddess.
Therein lies, a tale as old as time;
how it is man who crucifies
the ones who wholeheartedly know
the magnificent power that they hold.

– Valerie Parente (9-28-2024)

Free In My Own Skin

July 11, 2024Leave a comment

Free In My Own Skin by Valerie Parente

If there were no men I’d be naked all of the time.
If there was no threat I’d be making my own highs.
If there was no sex I’d be vacant in my mind.
And I am compelled to be a sin in their eyes.

I don’t do provocative for them, I do it for me
because being feminine makes me feel free
and the fact that that’s a danger to society
is nothing short of chauvinism at its peak.

– Valerie Parente (7-11-2024)

Lone Wolf

July 5, 2024July 6, 2024Leave a comment

Lone Wolf by Valerie Parente

Maybe I’m just a lone wolf,
me, myself, and I,
don’t have to worry about a pack,
it’s just me, myself, and rhymes.

Baby I’m just a lone wolf,
ever so hard to swoon,
but why do I still blush,
when you howl at the moon?

You should stay away from me,
I can tear you apart,
if I feel the slightest threat,
I’ll turn the predator in me on.

But even a lone wolf
has that canine inside,
with so much love for people,
but it’s people who should hide.

– Valerie Parente (7-5-2024)

Immaculate

June 16, 2024June 21, 2024Leave a comment

Immaculate by Valerie Parente

At the beginning God said,
“Let there be light”
but Luna was born
on a pitch black midnight.

So she grew up and lectured God,
“I don’t know who you think you are,
but I see so much cruelty around me;
the world is nothing but dark.”

And God looked at her and laughed,
“Sweet girl, you’ve got it all wrong,
you can see these things around you
because you are that light amongst it all.”

So she made it her mission in life
to spread light into the atmosphere,
and nobody knew where she came from
but they knew she was meant to be here.

– Valerie Parente (6-16-2024)

Homebody

June 14, 2024Leave a comment

Homebody by Valerie Parente

I was looking for a place to call home
when a realization flashed like a spark,
that home is those moments in time,
times when loved ones left their mark.
And moments in time
are always doomed to depart,
to become invisible and intangible
except for in my heart.
Home is not something I will lose
if it is already lost
and in that way there is nothing new to fear
unless you fear what we are.

– Valerie Parente (6-14-2024)