Victim not Villain

August 27, 2026Leave a comment

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

August 17, 2026Leave a comment

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

August 10, 2026August 10, 2026Leave a comment

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

August 1, 2026Leave a comment

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)

Transcendent Beings

July 23, 2026July 26, 2026Leave a comment

Transcendent Beings by Valerie Parente

When I dream
my body doesn’t come with me.
I don’t worry about the where when and why
I simply believe
and it’s already mine.

When I hope
I just need to feel it to know.
Nature doesn’t need to run it by me
like a river that flows
along my conscious stream.

There are hints all around
embedded in the sensory
that when it’s all said and done
we are transcendent beings.

I am not the life I live
through my thoughts
I am the dream that goes on
when they shut off.

– Valerie Parente (7-23-2026)

Metamorphosis

July 19, 2026July 19, 2026Leave a comment

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

June 28, 2026June 28, 2026Leave a comment

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

June 14, 2026June 14, 2026Leave a comment

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

May 18, 2026May 28, 2026Leave a comment

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

May 16, 2026May 17, 20261 Comment

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.