In Your Orbit by Valerie Parente
In your orbit
I am more than enough
just like a planet
who’s found her sun.
It once seemed aimless
the path I embarked
but it was all predestined
written in the stars.
I would go on untethered
bound to no such rotation
if it weren’t for you
or the gravity of the situation.
In your orbit
I will never stray
I could go around the world forever
with the pull of your weight.
– Valerie Parente (5-19-2025)
Flood by Valerie Parente
Numb
numb
numb
then like a flood
I felt it all
grief, guilt, but most of all
the feeling of being loved
and I could never be mad
at the way my loved ones loved me
when I was incapable
of feeling sorry
because they were the ones that cared
when I was too scared
and they cried
cried
cried
like a flood
in dry air.
I feel it all now
for all those times that I caused pain
and I just want my support system to know
the love was never in vain
the storm clouds are gone
but I am here, I remain
and I am more grateful
than a flower is to rain.
– Valerie Parente (5-9-2025)
Get A Grip by Valerie Parente
They said “Get a grip!”
but I wouldn’t listen
because my favorite place
used to be in my head
but that wasn’t a place
it was a method
of coping with all
that remained unsaid
in the real world
when I felt abandoned
so I taught myself
to daydream instead.
It wasn’t until
that grip loosened
I learned who I was
and felt alive again.
I was able to create
when I’d reflect
and it was actually better
than I could ever imagine.
No more make believe
no more need to pretend
flesh and bone was superior
even if it bled.
You are my totem
my rhyme and reason
the thing that reminds me
that I am human.
You are my awakening
my reality check
the thing that made it all
begin to make sense.
You are now my favorite place
an existence I can understand
and when they say “get a grip”
I will hold onto your hand.
– Valerie Parente (4-10-2025)
Irrevocable by Valerie Parente
In my anxiety
I imagine
if I lost it all
and in my anxiety
I imagine
my reaction
to if I lost it all
and the first thought that comes to mind
is “I’ve had such a great life”
because something about being without
makes me realize how unfathomably blessed I’ve been
and in what I lack in the present tense
I’ve gained the ability to see how the universe once filled that space
and to be able to recognize a miracle
is an irrevocable miracle in itself.
The world can decay and the universe can evaporate
but to no longer be blind to how life was great
is not a loss, it’s a gain.
– Valerie Parente (3-15-2025)
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)
Hunger by Valerie Parente
I was never any good
at decoding my appetite,
was I really hungry
or was I empty inside?
Not in the pit of my stomach
but my heart and its hole,
looking for an object
for my affection to go.
I strive for permanence
but permanence scares me,
I’m afraid of full
but full is not finality,
there’s a fleeting hunger
that comes and goes,
and I am an example
of the flux and flow.
Ever since I met you
I feel the endless regimen,
the cycle of hunger
is a permanent impermanence,
a satisfaction then a longing
hungry, full, then hungry again,
and you remind me
that this makes me human.
I will always come back
now that I’ve had a taste
I finally understand my appetite
and the way it is paced.
I will always want you again
just not all at once
and I am no longer afraid
of a man’s permanence.
– Valerie Parente (1-19-2025)
Immaculate by Valerie Parente
At the beginning God said,
“Let there be light”
but Luna was born
on a pitch black midnight.
So she grew up and lectured God,
“I don’t know who you think you are,
but I see so much cruelty around me;
the world is nothing but dark.”
And God looked at her and laughed,
“Sweet girl, you’ve got it all wrong,
you can see these things around you
because you are that light amongst it all.”
So she made it her mission in life
to spread light into the atmosphere,
and nobody knew where she came from
but they knew she was meant to be here.
– Valerie Parente (6-16-2024)
Sol Purpose by Valerie Parente
What I am
and what I could have been
is what the moon is to the sun
when you compare them.
A fireball of brilliant light
so much potential in action
and I am no more than a rock
whose light is but a fraction.
Though I’ll tell you something about the sun
it hovers alone above the horizon
but when the moon is out
billions of stars join the environment.
To be bright and sole
or to be dim but glistening
one leaves all blind
one reveals purpose in the end.
– Valerie Parente (5-28-2024)
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)
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