HEARTwork by Valerie Parente
You only have so much space in your chest
to fit your trauma into
art is what happens
when your heart runs out of room.
You can writhe and twist
and bend and break
until your heart overflows
and there’s no more space.
So let the blood seep out
and use it to paint
a bigger picture of the human condition
beyond one person’s heartache
and in the act of being seen
from the signature of your veins
the world will have no choice
but to place your trauma in a frame.
Bloodshed by Valerie Parente
They say us women are the weak ones
even though every month we shed blood
created with a mechanism for self sacrifice
sometimes giving our own life to create more life.
Not every woman is allowed to do what she wants
some bleed and make life whether they like it or not
and these men only bleed when they decide
deciding to bleed as a means to end lives.
What’s with all these disenchanted young men
thinking the solution is to resort to bloodshed?
That to eliminate their own unpleasant feelings
they must cause some kind of chaos and bleeding.
Their bloodshed is perfectly preventable
a consequence to actions deemed inevitable
but it’s women’s bloodshed that was never a choice
yet our society makes a choice to teach it to boys.
Once a month every year all because of hormones
every week a violent news story because he feels alone
but make no mistake, it was never him vs. her
it’s what we decide to do with nature vs. nurture.
– Valerie Parente (10-4-2025)
Memento Vivere by Valerie Parente
When hatred took a life
and people gathered to grieve
the Devil cruelly boasted
about the havoc that he wreaked
praising the power of hatred
when there is tragedy.
He looked out to all the people
and he shamelessly teased,
“How could you pitiful humans
see catastrophe then denounce me?
Look how people come together
because of the hate I unleashed!”
But the clouds began to part
and the angels looked down lovingly
as the humans who still lived
engaged in their ceremony
watching the overflow of love
in the name of rest in peace.
“People do not come together because of you,”
the angels said with ease,
“People come together in spite of you
and any form of catastrophe.
The power does not stem
from the hate you have breathed
it comes from rejecting the hate
and the Devil’s very defeat.
Hate has no power on earth
it only temporarily fleets
and what withstands after you
is their newfound unity.”
– Valerie Parente (9-30-2025)
Starving Artist by Valerie Parente
Eat your words and be compelled
to doubt the passion within myself
when you say I’m not a successful artist
because I haven’t made a profit
that I’m supposed to make money from my art
but I only spend money making art so far
struggling to make it accessible
striving to make it impressionable
but I guess I’m just a “starving artist”
scrambling for coins in empty pockets
how am I supposed to hide from depression and inaction
when I’m standing in the open begging for traction
and the “starving artist” in me starved before
the teenager with anorexia as her mentor
my talent used to be limiting my intake
now my talent is having something of value to say
so don’t you dare preach to me about starvation
when I already mastered the art of deliberate deprivation
if the world really insists on giving me this title
I’m going to be hellbent and entitled
when you use the label “starving artist” again
I’ll eat your words while rhyming them.
– Valerie Parente (9-28-2025)
Scabs by Valerie Parente
You pick at your scabs just to watch them scab again
so that when they heal over you’ll feel satisfaction
but you’re only making yourself more susceptible to infection
so don’t be surprised when the sickness seeps in
and you long to inflict hurt for the sake of revenge
as you wield a weapon and declare it’s medicine
then wait and wait for the scabs, the reaction.
Somebody who needs others to know they have healed
is not healed.
Somebody who needs to create hurt to feel healed
is not healed.
Somebody who picks at their scabs so they can scab again
is not healed.
– Valerie Parente (9-19-2025)
The Singularity, The Soul by Valerie Parente
When the darkness comes for you
don’t fear being seduced
because the dark loves you, darling
and you are its muse too.
This black hole is enamored by you
a singularity that pulls you in
if it were simply nothing
you wouldn’t feel the attraction.
No, it’s not a void
or in what you lack
it’s a concentration
it’s a black mass.
You feel it in your chest
sucking your energy
past the event horizon
into a bank of memory.
This singularity, they say
compresses all of you infinitely
yet its volume does not exist
well that sounds like a soul, if you ask me.
Don’t you dare compare the black hole to depression
which is ambivalent and unfazed
it contains more emotion than you could imagine
the density of the soul and the darkness are one and the same.
– Valerie Parente (9-14-2025)
Fear of Fear by Valerie Parente
I told myself not to think bad thoughts
but that was an impossible mission
because to try to ignore something
is to fail at ignoring it, by definition.
The fear of fear,
it’s a tricky little pest
what you’re afraid of might not be here
but you’re still afraid, nonetheless.
The fear of fear is a reality
and you are its loyal witness
don’t try to wish it away
don’t even try to resist
it can only lose its potency
once you accept that it exists.
– Valerie Parente (9-7-2025)
Dream State by Valerie Parente
They say when you dream
you can incorporate outside stimuli
and I know that must be true
because I see things behind closed eyes.
When I was younger
I would dream
and dream
and dream
and now that I’m older
I have woken up
and everything I ever wanted was here, waiting for me.
Every sound, voice, and hope that permeated those dream states
Was peaking through the veil
waiting for me to wake.
They say dreams really do come true
but I understand now, it’s reality infused.
Your destiny coincides with your gut,
all you have to do is wake up.
– Valerie Parente (9-6-2025)
Prey by Valerie Parente
“What do damsels attract most?”
“Princes!”
“No. Predators.”
They glamorized putting ourselves in danger
for the thrill of being saved
thinking the peril would make us a princess
but all it really made us was prey.
– Valerie Parente (9-1-2025)
The Damsel & The Demon
by Valerie Parente
There once was a Damsel named Daphne
and when she was just a girl
she started having intrusive thoughts
that drew her to the underworld.
There stood the kingdom of Nefaria
ruled by a soul sucking Demon
he preyed on the vulnerable
by giving them something to believe in.
With the incessant rhymes in her head
the Damsel turned to the Demon for relief
tolerating and even aiding
the damned souls he heartlessly reaped.
But in a moment of profound strength
Daphne had a change of heart
she felt the fire in her own soul,
all it took was one spark.
From that day began a journey
where her codependence would be unlearned
finding a power within herself
Daphne would be the Damsel no more.
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