Tag: mental disorder

Victim not Villain

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Victim not Villain
by Valerie Parente

If a woman asks for help
time and time again
pleading and begging
in desperation
and the system ignores her
until she gives in
then she is more of a victim
than she is a villain.

And all these men in suits
are playing willfully ignorant
saying the madness in it all
is the empathetic women
not the failing system
they so pitifully defend.
They’d rather protect the patriarchy
than protect a fellow human.

So which one is it?
Which one is it then?
Hateful monsters?
Hysterical and overreacting?
Either we’re weak minded and vulnerable
or we’re the spawns of Satan
but you can’t have it both ways
then offer no solution.

– Valerie Parente (8-26-2026)

Girls Like Playing 1

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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

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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)

White Noise

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White Noise by Valerie Parente

When I go to sleep
I need the white noise
because if it’s too quiet
I can hear my inner voice
and I don’t want to know
what it says about me
when I’m alone
and no one else can intervene.

When I’m alone
I want to stay disillusioned
that the world is still buzzing
without my movement.
I want to stay unimportant
that my problems are nothing
but a tiny side effect
of a mind that needs numbing.

– Valerie Parente (8-1-2026)

The Lie

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The Lie by Valerie Parente

The problem was never the lie
the problem was how easy it was to believe the lie.
It’s a travesty
the way they mold our minds
like clay or paper mâché
they shape our brains
but when we realize we’ve been used
we can begin to dissolve the ruse.

The lie says more about the fragility of our minds
than it does about the content it transcribes
and the truth in that realization
can set us free from exploitation.

– Valerie Parente (6-14-2026)

The Devil On My Shoulder Is So Pretty

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The Devil On My Shoulder Is So Pretty by Valerie Parente

The devil on my shoulder
is so pretty.
She whispers poetry in my ear
that’s so sickening.
Because she used to be an angel
but she fell from grace
and now she lurks in the shadows
of my mental states.

Her horns represent
something so appealing
the idea of the subconscious
in the shape of a demon.
She is narcissism, she is vanity,
the root of evil.
She is the assignment of good and bad,
the concept of ego.

She tempts the pragmatic mind
like a moth to a flame.
She claims chaos and destruction
explains the pain.
But tell me why I have morals
deep in my core
tell me why light and love
will always conquer.

The devil on my shoulder
is just a breath.
She accompanies my life
like the idea of death.
She is creation
whispering in my ear
she is just a thought
a philosophical idea.

– Valerie Parente (5-17-2026)

Stomach Lining

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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)

Encased

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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)

Gossip

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Gossip by Valerie Parente

The voices in my head
like to gossip about me
little cliques from a school
a school of thought I attend daily.

They say never speak ill of the dead
but what if it’s the dead that speaks
leftover whispers from the depression
gossiping ghosts I already buried.

It’s anxiety that gossips
it’s intuition that simply breathes
with fear you’re not the one talking
you’re the one eavesdropping intently.

I will never be a victim to negative words
there is no need to go mad or worry
because the voices can’t talk behind my back
when I can see them right in front of me.

– Valerie Parente (10-18-2025)

Scabs

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Scabs by Valerie Parente

You pick at your scabs just to watch them scab again
so that when they heal over you’ll feel satisfaction
but you’re only making yourself more susceptible to infection
so don’t be surprised when the sickness seeps in
and you long to inflict hurt for the sake of revenge
as you wield a weapon and declare it’s medicine
then wait and wait for the scabs, the reaction.


Somebody who needs others to know they have healed
is not healed.
Somebody who needs to create hurt to feel healed
is not healed.
Somebody who picks at their scabs so they can scab again
is not healed.

– Valerie Parente (9-19-2025)