Metamorphosis by Valerie Parente
Is this the beginning of the end
or the end of the beginning?
Because I’m still me
but my world is shifting
from the safety of a cocoon
to the wind that is whistling
and as my story unfolds
I wonder how much is scripted
because they say to spread my wings
and I’ve decided to listen
but only time will tell
if this is the end or the beginning.
– Valerie Parente (7-19-2026)
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)
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 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)
The Carnival is Back in Town
by Valerie Parente
The carnival
is back in town
and it gives me a feeling
so profound
the way we build it up
just to tear it down
like our expectations
before we all found
that the promise of adulthood
wasn’t safe and sound
it’s a game of chance
to outgrow these clowns
but that ferris wheel
it still goes around
same crazy ride
with a different crowd
and year after year
on these fairgrounds
you remember when life was fair
but it’s not fair now.
There was an innocence then
that childhood allowed
but if you listen carefully
you’ll still hear it loud
the sound of the carnival
when it’s back in town
a fleeting state
that cannot be bound.
– Valerie Parente (5-16-2026)
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)
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)
Give Them Hell by Valerie Parente
I’m the monster
that my monsters are afraid of
because they wouldn’t be trying so hard to take me down
if they didn’t know what I’m capable of.
The truth is they believe in me
more than anyone else
so when I get paranoid and believe nothing is real
I can still believe in one thing, and that’s myself.
The dark entities in your mind
want to take you down to where the pain dwells
so if they’re gonna make a monster out of you
you might as well give them hell.
– Valerie Parente (10-26-2025)
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)
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)
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