Witness by Valerie Parente
What is a world
if it has no witness?
This whole big universe
and if consciousness didn’t exist
neither would it.
Reality without mind
means no here or this
no big picture to see
without awareness.
So the next time you feel the slightest bit blue
remember every single beautiful thing that is, was, and will ever be
means nothing without you.
– Valerie Parente (2-21-2026)
Valkyrie by Valerie Parente
They told me to find a knight in shining armor
if I wanted someone to save me
so I polished my nails
and became my own source of bravery.
They told me to dull my shine
so that I wouldn’t distract
then pretended I never had
any power to take back.
They wanted me to yield my worth
and rely on the opposite sex
so I decided to wield my sword
and damn my own distress.
They tried to make me feel small
so I wouldn’t notice
that I am a force
to be reckoned with.
– Valerie Parente (2-20-2026)
Seed by Valerie Parente
I had a dream
that somebody asked me
how they can manifest their dreams
and I told them with unwavering certainty,
“First, plant a seed
water it
tend to it
watch it sprout
do it all attentively
then you will see
you are capable of growing something complete
out of something that was once just a belief
then you will understand
how to use your energy.”
– Valerie Parente (2-7-2026)
Meeting You Was A Lot Like Remembering by Valerie Parente
Meeting you
was a lot like remembering
what I wanted
when I thought I’d forgotten.
Being with you
was a lot like recognizing
an answer to a prayer
when it was in the palm of my hands.
Nothing with you ever felt new to me
it felt like waking up and remembering a dream
like you’re just another quality of reality
like space and time and the air we breathe
like rhyme and reason and poetry
like you and me are meant to be.
– Valerie Parente (1-25-2026)
Night Vision by Valerie Parente
Every night becomes day
and every day becomes night
there is nothing permanent
about this fight that you fight.
When I was young I developed night vision
finding beauty in darkness all around
so I made that my main mission
to paint it all out, to write it all down.
You see these eyes, they adapted
as these pupils grew far and wide
thriving in the day as well as evening
now I’m twice as much alive.
It was scary at first
deciphering the shapes under the shadows
but that’s the glory in growing lucid
what was once a dream is now in your control.
I see you, I see it all,
you can run but you can’t hide,
I will see you again
next time with a third eye.
– Valerie Parente (1-11-2026)
Taproot by Valerie Parente
Praying
and daydreaming
are one and the same
wanting
and envisioning
share the same face
it starts in the body
then goes out in space
it starts in the soil
then branches away.
I used to think falling to my knees was only for begging
but it’s really for manifesting
because when you’re down on your knees
you’re closer to the ground
closer to the seeds
where it all sprouts out.
– Valerie Parente (12-25-2025)
Bite Me! by Valerie Parente
Tell me to shut up
close my mouth
as you bare your teeth,
you chew me up
then spit me out
as you please,
so tell me why you get so offended
when I say “Bite Me!”
It’s almost as if you’re not offended by the content of my words
but the fact that I had the audacity to dictate what happens to my body first.
– Valerie Parente (12-20-2025)
My Perfect Match by Valerie Parente
I always had
a flicker of hope in my heart
and when we met
I felt that spark.
It all makes perfect sense
when I look back
that I was struck
by my perfect match.
Fire always scared me
but not with you, my twin flame,
and if it all burned down
I wouldn’t be afraid,
if it all burned down with you
I’d only notice the glow on your face.
– Valerie Parente (12-13-2025)
Pepper Spray by Valerie Parente
Men say they’re better at tolerating the pain
so I say, hey! What’s a little pepper spray?
They can handle the weights, but can they handle the word “no”?
While we handle the weight of a man’s world on our bones.
Us women are tearing up because we’re feeling the depth,
these men are tearing up when we wreak self-defense.
I’m not saying it’s a competition, who’s the better sex
but one bleeds to create life, the other bleeds when life ends.
These men’s eyes may burn, they’re eyes may grow wet,
maybe then they’ll understand how it truly feels to be on edge,
running to our cars, gripping pepper spray for dear life
locking our doors, worrying we’ll be the next sacrifice.
– Valerie Parente (12-13-2025)
A Siren’s Threat by Valerie Parente
If I were a siren
I’d kill men too
lure them to the fishnets
they forced me into.
We are more than the sex
to which we have been reduced
may we serenade men to death
for all the times they’ve been cruel
because mother nature’s silhouette
is in the shape of a typhoon
and when they get shipwrecked
they won’t feel our grooves
only the ocean’s depths
under the pull of the moon
and this world would be no less
if anything, improved.
– Valerie Parente (11-29-2025)
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