Her by Valerie Parente
You never knew her
You knew of her
And the way
She played with fire
Just like every
Woman prior
Who learned the hard way
To be the wiser
Against the system
That would conspire
To dim the light
From her lighter.
A scarlet red
She is a fighter
Among the flames
She has grown brighter.
– Valerie Parente (5-21-2023)
What Am I To You? by Valerie Parente
What am I to you
but a means to breed?
What is my anatomy to you
but a sacrifice so sweet?
What is my pain to you
but a moral victory?
What is my pleasure to you
but a sin to preach?
What is my desperation to you
but a punishment for being free?
What is my free will to you
but a political chess piece?
What is my free will to you
but something to mistreat?
What is my hope to you
but a mere dream?
What am I to you
but a lesser being?
– Valerie Parente (6-28-2022)
Blue Lips by Valerie Parente
Something about the cold
and how it makes my lips blue.
Something about the frostbite
in being so crude.
I vowed to be explicit
in everything that I do.
I vowed to be so cold
to every man that swoons.
Don’t touch me,
I’m made of ice
and you’ll be frozen too.
Don’t touch me,
it’s my demise
from the fear I have groomed.
Yes, there’s 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 (1-27-2022)
The Femme Fatale by Valerie Parente
That woman holds the serpent
doing as she pleases
and wouldn’t you like to know
that’s why they call her deviant.
They gave her scarlet horns
so she adorned them with charms
reminders of her intentions
from the moon and the stars.
That woman is in charge
that’s why they call her malevolent
she didn’t kill any man
she killed man’s dominance.
– Valerie Parente (6-15-2021)
Poisoned Apple by Valerie Parente
There was a curse upon that orchard,
stemming from each apple seed,
and when the cold came around,
an apple fell from the apple tree,
sour and rotting from the inside
when it was supposed to be sweet,
poisoned from its very core,
just like a mental disease,
they told me to give it to a man,
since they often cause the grief,
but I knew if I poisoned a man,
it was the same as poisoning me,
and on the rainiest of rainy days,
I let that apple decay in the leaves,
because hurting those who hurt you,
is an excuse for the weak,
and the earth responded so kind,
to a woman’s forgiveness and mercy,
the ground swallowed that apple,
then it swallowed another three,
and as each fruit fell to the soil,
it was healed from its malady,
altogether the orchard ripened,
and it was as good as freed,
cured by a change of thought,
that’s how we reach true equality.
– Valerie Parente (5-8-2021)
Dress Up by Valerie Parente
Kinda funny, when you dress up
that they get all hung up
because a woman can look like a woman
unless there are sums of men looking,
and if you dress like a doll
they’ll think it’s playtime when it’s not.
But last time I checked
I expect so much less
when a man looks like a man
I don’t assume he’ll hold my hand.
It’s condescending to the men
that we think less of them
like they can’t control their fantasies
when they see a woman so free
as if they don’t have the control
not to touch what’s not their own.
You can dress up, you can dress down
you can convey whatever you dream about
because it empowers every party
when you feel free with who you want to be.
– Valerie Parente (3-6-2021)
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