Scabs

September 19, 2025September 20, 2025Leave a comment

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

September 14, 2025September 14, 2025Leave a comment

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

September 7, 2025September 7, 2025Leave a comment

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

September 6, 2025September 26, 2025Leave a comment

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

September 1, 2025September 1, 2025Leave a comment

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 (INTRO)

August 27, 2025August 27, 2025Leave a comment

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.

The Damsel & The Demon by Valerie Parente

The Damsel & The Demon OUT NOW

August 24, 2025August 24, 2025Leave a comment

BUY HERE

The Damsel & The Demon is a poetry/fantasy story hybrid (verse novel) meant to be an allegory for the healing process, whether that be healing from addiction, a toxic relationship, a traumatic event, or anything in between. Valerie drew inspiration from her personal struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder and anorexia to create this Allegory for Healing through the lens of the main character, Daphne. For both Daphne and Valerie, fleeting feelings can only exist as fixations, and the rhythmic stanzas of an internal dialogue, playing like poetry, is the conduit between the mentally disordered author and the hexed protagonist of this story. There is so much beauty in healing, but healing is still ever so messy, uncovering darkness where we expected light and vice versa. Determined to create this massive poem with no help from search engines or AI, Valerie made it her mission to come up with every rhyme on her own; turning to the internet for help was forbidden. As a result, The Damsel & The Demon is an authentic fantastical dark fairytale scripture rich with revelations and an aim to help readers everywhere see themselves in the damsel archetype as well as the ailment they struggle to separate from in the demon.

Valerie Parente is a writer and artist from Massachusetts whose bodies of work often explore the theme, “Finding beauty in darkness” and general mental health awareness.

Blue Lips

August 24, 2025August 24, 2025Leave a comment

Blue Lips by Valerie Parente

You say, something about the cold
and how it makes you depressed
like the whole world goes dark
and you lose all interest.

You say, the cold is like death
but for me I feel alive
because we can only see breath
when it’s cold outside.

I say, something about the cold
and how it makes my lips blue.
Well at least when I’m cold
I’m the color of you.

– Valerie Parente (8-24-2025)

sick in the head

August 20, 2025November 23, 2025Leave a comment

sick in the head by Valerie Parente

I used to curse my teenage self
for wanting to be sick in the head.
30 years old
and I finally comprehend
that anybody who wants to be sick in the head
is already sick in the head.

– Valerie Parente (8-20-2025)

Summoning

August 18, 2025August 18, 20251 Comment

Summoning by Valerie Parente

They told me to face my demons
but my demons have the same face as me
so I looked myself in the mirror
and said “you don’t scare me” on repeat.

Funny how I possess these demons within myself
yet they come out to possess me
getting sick was a summoning by accident
deciding to heal was a summoning purposefully.

Like a ritual, the darkness resurfaces
but you’ll realize, through this hell
that you are also your own guardian angel
because only you can save yourself.