Sol Purpose

May 28, 2024May 28, 2024Leave a comment

Sol Purpose by Valerie Parente

What I am
and what I could have been
is what the moon is to the sun
when you compare them.

A fireball of brilliant light
so much potential in action
and I am no more than a rock
whose light is but a fraction.

Though I’ll tell you something about the sun
it hovers alone above the horizon
but when the moon is out
billions of stars join the environment.

To be bright and sole
or to be dim but glistening
one leaves all blind
one reveals purpose in the end.

– Valerie Parente (5-28-2024)

Danger to Society

May 21, 2024May 22, 2024Leave a comment

Danger to Society by Valerie Parente

They say that my anatomy
is a danger to society
when it comes to expressing
all that’s inside of me.

Yet I’m not too dangerous
for you to profit off of it
for you to get off with it
do whatever you want with it
but I need to be cautious with it.

You censor my canvas
and give yourself the advantage
with arbitrary rules and guidelines
while I’m just collateral damage.

But if you ask me
you’re the real danger to society
because you take what isn’t yours
then make it my responsibility.

– Valerie Parente (5-15-2024)

Knives for Tears

May 10, 2024May 11, 2024Leave a comment

Knives for Tears by Valerie Parente

I had a nightmare
that I had knives
instead of tears
embedded under my eyes
from when someone stabbed me
but I survived.

I woke up
only to realize
it wasn’t a nightmare at all
but a beautiful sign
of my scathing resilience
when they thought I’d cry.

– Valerie Parente (5-10-2024)

Vandal

May 4, 2024May 4, 2024Leave a comment

Vandal by Valerie Parente

One man’s vandal
is another man’s artist.
It takes the eyes of a beholder
to determine which is which.

– Valerie Parente (5-4-2024)

Rude Awakening

May 3, 2024May 4, 2024Leave a comment

Rude Awakening by Valerie Parente

I should have known you were a total creep
when you declared “you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me”
and we had only been talking for one day that week
when you tried to parade around my anatomy.

Truthfully, I knew something was awry
though I told myself I’m just not used to nice guys
but nice isn’t profuse compliments one, two, twenty times
nice is giving a girl a chance to make up her own mind.

There is such profound violation
in having my time knowingly wasted
and I am far from complacent
to your attempts at emotional manipulation.

Damn right, I take it personally
that you had the nerve to try to corner me
but it took five seconds for me to formally
recognize you only act on insecurity.

My gut told me you were too good to be true
and at the time I didn’t want to be shrewd
but I hope your awakening is quite rude
because I don’t take kindly to being fooled.

This was a very rude awakening of mine;
a lesson that you can’t manifest a “dream guy”
because dreams are meant for closed eyes
and a girl needs to be awake at all times.

– Valerie Parente (5-3-2024)

Miniature House

April 19, 2024March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Miniature House by Valerie Parente

I’ve always been a homebody
so I built myself a miniature house
and I figured if I shrunk myself
I’d fit perfectly on a trophy shelf.

Divided into pretty little rooms
turned two floors into my world
made my bed like a good girl does
but didn’t lay in it like I should’ve.

Instead I brought you into that domain
after three years, you wanted out
and like a nail too close to a coffin
I hid the hammer so the blow would soften.

You were so hardened to affection
I wasn’t sure if you even loved me anymore
and when I asked for concrete proof
you gave me concrete from the floor to the roof.

The writing was on the wall
but those walls were caving in
so silly little me played illiterate
to make the collapse illegitimate.

A broken home makes sense in hindsight
’cause I wanted infrastructure in the ground
while you wanted to live on four wheels
… but that was never part of the deal.

Now I’m content in my own space
I can finally breathe a sigh of relief
in this perfect miniature house
that could never fit a spouse.

– Valerie Parente (4-19-2024)

Bombs Away!

March 22, 2024March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Bombs Away! by Valerie Parente

So much praise right away
an affair of love bombing
and I knew better
than to go all in.

Lit up in a flash
like a stick of dynamite
set off, and set up,
designed for sparks to fly.

Spontaneous combustion
the kind that gives you whiplash
shame on me for being surprised
that it fizzled out just as fast.

Now that the smoke has cleared
there’s nothing left
but a gaping space
in the shape of foolishness.

I thought I knew better than to trust
when men declare, “Bombs Away!”
so why am I confused
that it blew up in my face?

– Valerie Parente (2-22-2024)

Untethered

March 10, 2024March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Untethered by Valerie Parente

Being free
and being dizzy
are one in the same
and I’ve never felt more untethered
than when I can’t think straight.

Being fluid
all is moving
and I feel the movement in me
not in sync with the rest
but so close, I am almost complete.

Being uninterrupted
I feel gratitude
when I remember I can feel this way
though I admit, I feel frustrated
when I remember this is not okay to say.

I dream
of this freedom
of being untethered again
moving and fluid
from the fluid within.

– Valerie Parente (2-16-2024)

Blasphemy

March 8, 2024March 29, 2025Leave a comment

Blasphemy by Valerie Parente

If we keep calling different phrases blasphemy, then
we rid the world of artistic masterpieces…

For nothing is more forbidden
than forbidding words
and nothing is more convincing
than scapegoating a curse;
You give the curse word conviction
when you veil it from the world
so don’t you dare claim indifference
to the power of linguistic terms;
With this tongue, I say, good riddance
to the censorship of artistic forms
you no longer need to be hidden
from man’s constraints and curbs.