Supernova by Valerie Parente
A dying star
is still a star, nevertheless
and when it goes out
a burst of light will be its last breath
leaving behind
shockwaves, so complex
the world cannot help
but feel its effects.
We may call it space
but there is no emptiness
for memories will linger
far past any death.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2025)
A Mystery by Valerie Parente
When you were young
you wanted to be left alone
for the sole purpose
of attracting a hero.
You didn’t want to be a spouse
you didn’t want to be a camaraderie
you didn’t want to be a parent
you wanted to be a mystery.
You’d sit alone in silence
where smiles were forbidden
because if they understood how you felt
they’d lose all interest.
You were adolescent and vulnerable
and deep in your sins
but would you believe
you were still innocent?
Never call it a conscious choice
when you were tricked to choose
by the shadows in predispositions
trauma of the old and the new.
Despite it all, you wouldn’t call it hell
the pain you endured in the past
hell would have been going through it all
without the support system you had.
You nearly lost it all to the shadows
but you made it out with so much more
manifesting your own enlightenment
you became the hero you longed for.
It is no longer a mystery
how the light shined through
it came through all the cracks
of the hearts that broke for you.
And if you could tell your younger self
one little clue
let it be the resounding phrase
“I forgive you”.
– Valerie Parente (2-8-2025)
Scar Tissue by Valerie Parente
You are designed
to heal from the inside out
it can be ugly on the surface
but you should be proud
because these marks take time
and show your defiance to pain
its the art of surviving
so unique to your shape.
You are your own hero
but don’t forget, you are human
and healing takes time
don’t make any sudden movements.
Know when to tend to wounds
and when pain’s at its end
remember, scars don’t bleed
unless you pick at them.
– Valerie Parente (2-6-2025)
Heart In My Throat by Valerie Parente
I had a distressing dream
that my heart was in my throat
and the voice inside of me
didn’t know how to flow.
I struggled to tell the elders
I could not survive like this
but they were just happy
that love in me still exists.
All of my love and heartache
at the same level I consume
the two were not the same
but my signals were askew.
A heart in the throat
is a very strange case
I could still feel it all
it just came from the wrong place.
It is not an easy way to live
and I had trouble vocalizing
how I would not survive
but I kept on surviving.
When I awoke, I remembered my youth
and how I thought I’d die instead of grow
but here I am, my adulthood so full of love
each day fulfilled beyond my wildest hopes.
I think it was young me all along
trying to communicate
“Thank you for believing I was wrong”
to the elder in me today.
– Valerie Parente (1-26-2025)
Alchemy by Valerie Parente
Art
is just alchemy to the 5 senses
transforming the “pain in here”
into something beautiful in the atmosphere.
The Artist
can disturb or it can delight
evoking a feeling from the reeling
of their individual healing.
– Valerie Parente (11-24-2024)
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)
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)
“Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“… That time heals the pain?”
“Yes, as time goes by you will smile at their memory instead of cry.”
“Is that because you start to forget about them?”
“No. You do not forget- you remember. You remember all those times together instead of that one moment you lost them.”
– Valerie Parente (1-6-2023)
Give Yourself Time… to Cherish the Given Time by Valerie Parente
Time really does heal the heart,
you can’t see it at the start
but someday those many moments of having them
will outweigh the one moment you lost them.
– Valerie Parente (6-17-2022)
Features “Sitting on Skulls and Bones”
and “Not Bionic”
from Moonchild Manifesto on Amazon.com
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