Tag: feminist poem

Rude Awakening

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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)

Succubus

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Succubus by Valerie Parente

Milky eyes rolled
in the back of her head
they accuse the succubus
of stealing dreams from the men.

She’s only as good
as when they want to be around her
as if her morality
is tied to their arousal.

He can touch her
but she can’t touch him
just like she can lose her value
but he can only win.

Her pleasure, her lust,
a malevolence in itself
while he’s in high heaven
she’s going straight to hell.

They call her a succubus
because she likes to be exposed
that’s why they justify
putting a knife to her throat.

But they don’t know
she’ll stroke the knife with her tongue
because she taught herself
to like the taste of blood.

Her

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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?

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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)

The Femme Fatale

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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

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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

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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)