Girls Like Playing 1
by Valerie Parente
All these women
hooked on GLP1s
playing anorexic
simply for the fun
reaping the side effects
of starvation
brain fog and sunken cheeks
bone deterioration
but it’s okay when they do it
with a doctor’s authorization
a society of zombies
that’s the motivation
no we aren’t supposed to look like skeletons
but Girls Like Playing 1.
– Valerie Parente (8-17-2026)
Survivor
by Valerie Parente
I am not a victim
I am a survivor.
I am not that broken little girl
I am the one who revived her.
I am not my circumstance
I am the good it inspired.
I am not worse for it all
I am the wiser.
I don’t remember the pain you gave me
I remember the power I acquired
because when the darkness came for me
I lit up like a fire.
– Valerie Parente (8-9-2026)
The Fine Line of Yearning by Valerie Parente
Yearning is a fine line
between surviving and thriving
and somewhere along the line
I fell in love with the surviving
the journey to preserve myself
while trusting the timing
that the goal of something else
would be gratifying.
But I didn’t prepare for
the comfort of discomfort
finding home in the journey
finding peace in the yearning.
Waiting
preparing
learning
becoming the best me
and when I finally had my hands on all I dreamed
I couldn’t shake the feeling
that I wanted to go back to sleep.
But now I know who I am
and I know what I will carry with me
and I know closing that circle
is where that fine line completes.
– Valerie Parente (6-28-2026)
Stomach Lining
by Valerie Parente
Oh the irony
that I destroyed my stomach lining
in an effort to be thin,
that I can’t properly digest
the world I want to take in.
I did it to myself
swallowing pills for bloating
but the stomach didn’t shrink
it became agonizing.
Meanwhile we live in a society
handing out prescriptions
to ruin the appetite of the ones
without mental conditions.
The same doctors that wagged their fingers
in my direction
are now encouraging disorders
à la injection.
And I’m sorry but I don’t have the stomach
to actively listen
to those once preaching body positivity
now with the opposite opinion.
It’s almost like it was never about health
just a superficial conviction.
It’s a sick world equating deprivation
with sweet discipline.
No, I don’t have the stomach
or the interior lining
to digest the bullshit
the elites are buying.
The mental fortitude it takes
to fight disordered eating
has never been more difficult
for those of us healing.
– Valerie Parente (5-3-2026)
Savor / Savior by Valerie Parente
I asked God “how can I make the most of a moment?”
and he told me to savor
but taste has always made me feel guilty
like a sick girl who chews and spits it out for the flavor.
Now in my recovery and adulthood
I don’t condone that behavior
but I’d be lying if I withheld the facts of my past
bound to come out sooner or later
how I wasted away like I wasted time
and made my own breathing labored.
The truth is I’m still scared of consumption
without a cavern or a crater
but I no longer leave room intentionally
I’ve started to do myself that favor,
realizing gut feelings are there for a reason
and to mute them is to mute my maker.
So I saved myself from within by enjoying food again
to the memories the guardian angels catered.
Now I feel a presence in every present tense
with a belly that belongs to a savior.
– Valerie Parente (3-8-2026)
Encased by Valerie Parente
I know I said I killed my younger self
but I was lying
I didn’t kill her
I locked her away
so that she would feel safe.
I thought I threw away the key
so I could preserve her whimsy
but I forgot in my haste
that behind a glass case
she could watch the world change
while staying the same age.
My life went on and progressed
with my inner child as my witness
and it took a long time
before I finally realized
I wasn’t trying to prove myself
to society or anyone else.
I’m not trying to impress you
I’m trying to impress 12 year old me
to be her idea of beauty
so that she could see
all those big scary feelings
didn’t kill her dreams
and it was this epiphany
that revealed the key
so I unlocked the case
and I set younger me free
as a way to say “forgive me
I loved you more than anything
may you go with ease
may you go with peace.”
– Valerie Parente (11-23-2025)
Claws by Valerie Parente
With claws I dug myself
a little hole into hell
6 feet underground
so I could never be found
and just as you’d expect
my vision adjusted to the darkness
until I no longer noticed
the depth of the hopelessness.
But one day the earth quaked
maybe it was chance, maybe fate
and for one second I saw too much
a flicker of light from above
I realized my surroundings
and I finally saw it for what it is
a hole inside the earth
a home for the dead and the dirt.
But there was something else in the ground
amongst the bones splayed around
neural pathways spread like roots
reaching down from the grass roof
and without hesitation or fright
I climbed them to the sunlight
with these same claws I buried myself with
I ventured out of the abyss.
– Valerie Parente (11-23-2025)
Wind Chimes by Valerie Parente
Out of thin air
you seem to vanish
but that is only true
on a visual canvas.
You still ring in my ears
even though I can’t see you
like the wind that strikes wind chimes
and the sound is the only proof.
You blow me away
with the little signs you show
I can’t see you per se
but I can see how you affect the surroundings I know.
The wind is real
even though you can’t see it
pain is real
even though you can’t see it
love is real
even though you can’t see it
if heaven is real
it doesn’t matter if you believe it
maybe you’re still by my side
even though I can’t see you with my eyes
an energy coursing through time
like the wind to wind chimes.
– Valerie Parente (11-2-2025)
Starving Artist by Valerie Parente
Eat your words and be compelled
to doubt the passion within myself
when you say I’m not a successful artist
because I haven’t made a profit
that I’m supposed to make money from my art
but I only spend money making art so far
struggling to make it accessible
striving to make it impressionable
but I guess I’m just a “starving artist”
scrambling for coins in empty pockets
how am I supposed to hide from depression and inaction
when I’m standing in the open begging for traction
and the “starving artist” in me starved before
the teenager with anorexia as her mentor
my talent used to be limiting my intake
now my talent is having something of value to say
so don’t you dare preach to me about starvation
when I already mastered the art of deliberate deprivation
if the world really insists on giving me this title
I’m going to be hellbent and entitled
when you use the label “starving artist” again
I’ll eat your words while rhyming them.
– Valerie Parente (9-28-2025)
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.
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