Voices by Valerie Parente
Your mind was still your mind
when you were too young for words.
You were someone before you could define
anything in this world.
That’s how I know when your thoughts are unkind
it is something separate that creates the hurt.
You are the thing behind
the whispers that float forth.
You are not the voices in your head,
you are the choices you make
after hearing them.
– Valerie Parente (6-10-2025)
A Mouthful of Crystals by Valerie Parente
Years ago I drew a picture of a girl
with crystals in her mouth
and I couldn’t remember
if they were going in or coming out.
I realized the answer depends
on how I feel now
empty and unfulfilled, begging to fill a hole inside
or full of emotion, like I need to express what’s on my mind.
Funny how the big picture
morphs to mimic your perspective;
the world is only as set in stone
as a crystal is reflective.
– Valerie Parente (6-7-2025)
Forbidden Fruit by Valerie Parente
Temptation isn’t temptation
without a moral compass
and sin isn’t sin
without omniscient justice.
But who gets to say
what is and isn’t forbidden?
Who are you really spiting
with the apple you’ve bitten?
How can you say my nature is evil
if I was created in His image
then turn around and say He loves me
without any conditions?
I’ve deprived myself long enough
thanks to willful ignorance,
starved myself
thinking I would be different,
felt the bones of my ribcage
with blind commitment,
realized I lost half my life
to a sick and twisted vision,
then rose from the dead
with a whole new mission;
I will sink my teeth into fruit
regardless of permission.
– Valerie Parente (5-31-2025)
Mirror Mirror by Valerie Parente
Mirror mirror
on the wall
why do you lie
to girls so small
they turned to you
and asked what’s wrong
then you showed them themselves
and did them harm.
Don’t speak about fair
when innocence is involved
you are no bastion
of truth at all.
– Valerie Parente (5-26-2025)
Temple by Valerie Parente
A place of worship,
they call it a temple
but it is not a building
it is the soul’s vessel.
Like a shrine, you are sacred
embodying something larger than life
a spirit that extends flesh
but this temple gives it sight.
If you knew how irreplaceable you are
you would never lose faith again
that you were meant to be here
despite the where, why, and when.
– Valerie Parente (5-25-2025)
In Your Orbit by Valerie Parente
In your orbit
I am more than enough
just like a planet
who’s found her sun.
It once seemed aimless
the path I embarked
but it was all predestined
written in the stars.
I would go on untethered
bound to no such rotation
if it weren’t for you
or the gravity of the situation.
In your orbit
I will never stray
I could go around the world forever
with the pull of your weight.
– Valerie Parente (5-19-2025)
Mermaid Hair & A Little Black Dress
by Valerie Parente
Mermaid hair and a little black dress
one for my inner child
one for her last breath.
Because I wasn’t ready
to grow up just yet
so when I felt wronged
I found poetic justice.
They said “what do you want to be when you grow up?”
and I said “a girl with mermaid hair”
for all the times as a kid
that I was too scared
of the fateful hour glass
and its ground of sand
so I stuck my head in the clouds
not all quite there
regressing and digressing
into my own fairy tale.
They said “dress as the impression you want to give”
so I wore a little black dress
’cause black goes with everything
and I’m an artist
breaking down reality
so it all makes sense
to little kid me
and the woman she respects
so that one fateful day
the heart in my chest
will end its marathon
with little to no regrets.
– Valerie Parente (5-11-2025)
Flood by Valerie Parente
Numb
numb
numb
then like a flood
I felt it all
grief, guilt, but most of all
the feeling of being loved
and I could never be mad
at the way my loved ones loved me
when I was incapable
of feeling sorry
because they were the ones that cared
when I was too scared
and they cried
cried
cried
like a flood
in dry air.
I feel it all now
for all those times that I caused pain
and I just want my support system to know
the love was never in vain
the storm clouds are gone
but I am here, I remain
and I am more grateful
than a flower is to rain.
– Valerie Parente (5-9-2025)
Intrinsic by Valerie Parente
The world is nothing
if it goes unseen
so I must mean something
in the grand scheme.
– Valerie Parente (5-1-2025)
Observer Effect by Valerie Parente
I once had an incredibly vivid dream
that I was conducting an experiment, and I died
and I watched the wall I was looking at
lose a richness only living eyes could provide.
They say you can see the fluidness of life
vanish from a dead person’s eyes
but it actually goes both ways
my ghost saw the same wall, and it was dry.
The world is missing something too
when it is no longer witnessed by a life
I discovered that the simple act of observation
gave the inanimate a quality I can’t describe.
When I’m awake, you know they say
that all matter has its own vital signs
what might be breath in a living body
might be in a wavelength collapsed time.
It all sounds crazy outside of slumber
but my lucid slumber helped me recognize
that miracles like life extend our bodies
and what is on the outside is as divine as you and I.
– Valerie Parente (4-27-2025)
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