Mirror Mirror by Valerie Parente
Mirror mirror
on the wall
why do you lie
to girls so small
they turned to you
and asked what’s wrong
then you showed them themselves
and did them harm.
Don’t speak about fair
when innocence is involved
you are no bastion
of truth at all.
– Valerie Parente (5-26-2025)
The False Promise of the Damsel in Distress
by Valerie Parente
I don’t think enough girls were taught the difference
between being in love and being obsessed,
so many stories of womanhood
were really stories of sickness,
that to attract a man
you have to be a damsel in distress,
that happily ever after was the goal
and your journey before was meaningless.
They taught us that pity
means he endlessly cares
and that negative attention
means love is in the air.
They said there has to be an obstacle
you can only overcome with him there,
that your accomplishments are null
unless a prince witnessed the despair.
So here’s to the girls
who broke their own hearts
taking on the damsel archetype
before adulthood could even start.
We are not ruined beyond repair,
we’re just a little scarred;
may we raise our daughters
as we raise our bars.
– Valerie Parente (3-28-2025)
Pull by Valerie Parente
She feels the pull
of light in equal amounts
the full fledged growth
from a garden she’s planting now.
They say it’s a green thumb
but it’s more like a claw on her hand
the one she used to scrape the dirt
then watch the seeds turn to plants.
This is no burial
it’s a call to rise
for a girl to become the woman
like a flower growing towards the light.
That light is her future self
smiling from above
a perfect reflection
of the frown she came from.
This pull she felt since she was young,
it was always in her view
and the only thing that is with you 100% of the time…
make no mistake, it is future you.
– Valerie Parente (3-22-2025)
Goodbye Girlhood by Valerie Parente
She knew it,
the day her Girlhood was dead and gone
it wasn’t a loss of innocence
in fact, it wasn’t even a loss.
Instead of deprivation
she was filled with awe
that her Girlhood even existed
regardless of how long.
In its place
gratitude had spawned
and she didn’t lament
instead she felt strong.
She was enriched
by who she once was
and she returned to the earth
to give back to a greater cause.
There is a prize with death
when you see life from above
and from that vantage point
you know how far you’ve come.
You’ll never know it was worth it
until the end of the song
and when you listen from a distance
you’ll know you’re where you belong.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2024)
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