Vandal by Valerie Parente
One man’s vandal
is another man’s artist.
It takes the eyes of a beholder
to determine which is which.
– Valerie Parente (5-4-2024)
Tag: Poetry
Rude Awakening
Rude Awakening by Valerie Parente
I should have known you were a total creep
when you declared “you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me”
and we had only been talking for one day that week
when you tried to parade around my anatomy.
Truthfully, I knew something was awry
though I told myself I’m just not used to nice guys
but nice isn’t profuse compliments one, two, twenty times
nice is giving a girl a chance to make up her own mind.
There is such profound violation
in having my time knowingly wasted
and I am far from complacent
to your attempts at emotional manipulation.
Damn right, I take it personally
that you had the nerve to try to corner me
but it took five seconds for me to formally
recognize you only act on insecurity.
My gut told me you were too good to be true
and at the time I didn’t want to be shrewd
but I hope your awakening is quite rude
because I don’t take kindly to being fooled.
This was a very rude awakening of mine;
a lesson that you can’t manifest a “dream guy”
because dreams are meant for closed eyes
and a girl needs to be awake at all times.
– Valerie Parente (5-3-2024)
Miniature House
Miniature House by Valerie Parente
I’ve always been a homebody
so I built myself a miniature house
and I figured if I shrunk myself
I’d fit perfectly on a trophy shelf.
Divided into pretty little rooms
turned two floors into my world
made my bed like a good girl does
but didn’t lay in it like I should’ve.
Instead I brought you into that domain
after three years, you wanted out
and like a nail too close to a coffin
I hid the hammer so the blow would soften.
You were so hardened to affection
I wasn’t sure if you even loved me anymore
and when I asked for concrete proof
you gave me concrete from the floor to the roof.
The writing was on the wall
but those walls were caving in
so silly little me played illiterate
to make the collapse illegitimate.
A broken home makes sense in hindsight
’cause I wanted infrastructure in the ground
while you wanted to live on four wheels
… but that was never part of the deal.
Now I’m content in my own space
I can finally breathe a sigh of relief
in this perfect miniature house
that could never fit a spouse.
– Valerie Parente (4-19-2024)
Untethered
Untethered by Valerie Parente
Being free
and being dizzy
are one in the same
and I’ve never felt more untethered
than when I can’t think straight.
Being fluid
all is moving
and I feel the movement in me
not in sync with the rest
but so close, I am almost complete.
Being uninterrupted
I feel gratitude
when I remember I can feel this way
though I admit, I feel frustrated
when I remember this is not okay to say.
I dream
of this freedom
of being untethered again
moving and fluid
from the fluid within.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2024)
Blasphemy
Blasphemy by Valerie Parente
If we keep calling different phrases blasphemy, then
we rid the world of artistic masterpieces…
For nothing is more forbidden
than forbidding words
and nothing is more convincing
than scapegoating a curse;
You give the curse word conviction
when you veil it from the world
so don’t you dare claim indifference
to the power of linguistic terms;
With this tongue, I say, good riddance
to the censorship of artistic forms
you no longer need to be hidden
from man’s constraints and curbs.
– Valerie Parente (3-8-2024)
The Timing of The Stars
The Timing of The Stars by Valerie Parente
The light from a star has been conspiring
to make its way to you in due time;
traveling through the cosmos
to reach your eyes.
The constellations give you exactly what you need
at the perfectly right time;
whether you are ready or not
is just a state of mind.
Looking back on the past
everything always makes sense
so why not put your faith
in the future past, called present?
– Valerie Parente (3-8-2024)
Bewildered
Bewildered by Valerie Parente
How utterly perplexing
that the thing I want more than anything
is the thing I fear more than anything.
All that I try to draw towards me
I push away when it’s before me.
– Valerie Parente (3-3-2024)
The Originator of Matter
The Originator of Matter by Valerie Parente
The Originator of Matter
is she who can manifest
any object of her desire
using the heart in her chest.
She teaches her disciples
how to hone this skill
able to materialize objects
out of nothing but will.
“The key is not imagining the object existing
it is imagining how it will feel when it exists,
live as the impact is already real
and you will create your every wish.
The power of your will
is not through thought
the power of your will
is a feeling through the heart.
You must take on the feeling
as if you already have what you covet
because there is a future version of you
that already knows you’ve won it.”
– Valerie Parente (3-1-2024)
Queen of Aversions
Queen of Aversions by Valerie Parente
I have an endless list of aversions
since age 0, almost to my 30s
and it should come as no surprise
that it permeates every area of my life
so here’s my regal attempt
to call out my constant contempt.
The tense muscle, toes curling
intense reflex type of aversion
have to look away
kind of public display
is quite a strong affliction
for someone who claims indifference.
There’s a passion in aversion
a self-preservation so determined
because I don’t fear what’s not special
I fear the things that have potential
so when asked for proof, I’m self-destructive
with only answers in the form of assumptions.
To be one who feels so vehemently
there’s a very distinct possibility
that I falsely identified
the feeling of butterflies
as a sickness to the stomach
because my anxiety was confronted.
Could it really be a coincidence
that the girl with issues so intimate
always just so happens
to never find attraction?
As if I could accurately gage
fingers on the pulse of tangled veins.
Maybe I was just nervous
because on paper it was perfect
and I’m not used to face to face
facing my weakness, facing my strength
and I know I said I didn’t feel any romance
but the truth is, I didn’t give it a fighting chance.
– Valerie Parente (2-21-2024)
The Skeleton Key
The Skeleton Key by Valerie Parente
The skeleton key
scares many men
afraid it will open
a sinister realm.
But the truth of a key
is in its protection
able to lock out
anything coming in.
Maybe the skeleton key
makes us so unrelaxed
because it proves there is more in common
between the trespasser and the trespassed.
– Valerie Parente (2-16-2024)
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