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)

Poiesis (Life is the Art)

August 6, 2026August 16, 2026Leave a comment

Poiesis
(Life is the Art)
by Valerie Parente

I only fear death
when I think of all the art left unfinished.
But life is no conquest
it has design, that of an artist.

So when their tears fall
like paint, they’ll fall for me
when their tears fall
my greatest masterpiece will be complete.

– Valerie Parente (8-6-2026)

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)

Blue Sky

July 26, 2026Leave a comment

Blue Sky by Valerie Parente

I had a dream
where the blue sky went away
and the earth changed the speed it rotates
and the new speed changed the sky to black
but when the world’s speed came back
we felt the shift on the earth
and the blue sky returned
and every single person who walked outside to see the sky
bursted out and cried.
Nobody could stop themself
from feeling moved
after realizing how grateful they were
that the sky is blue.

– Valerie Parente (7-26-2026)

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)

She Bites Back

July 6, 2026July 6, 2026Leave a comment

She Bites Back by Valerie Parente

If you bite
she bites back
then you have the nerve to make her the enemy
when she reacts
telling the world her defense mechanisms
are an attack
but you bit first
then put on the act
that it’s her fangs
with the negative impact.
Yes, you bit first
but she’ll bite last.

– Valerie Parente (7-5-2026)

home is as close to you as your heart

July 3, 2026August 2, 2026Leave a comment

home is as close to you as your heart by Valerie Parente

It’s not running away
if I bring home with me.
There’s no need to be afraid
that my love will leave
because it was always your love
that had a way of moving me.
I am only as far away
as the heart that I keep.
You are only as far away
as the heart inside you that beats.