A Mystery

February 8, 2025February 10, 2025Leave a comment

A Mystery by Valerie Parente

When you were young
you wanted to be left alone
for the sole purpose
of attracting a hero.

You didn’t want to be a spouse
you didn’t want to be a camaraderie
you didn’t want to be a parent
you wanted to be a mystery.

You’d sit alone in silence
where smiles were forbidden
because if they understood how you felt
they’d lose all interest.

You were adolescent and vulnerable
and deep in your sins
but would you believe
you were still innocent?

Never call it a conscious choice
when you were tricked to choose
by the shadows in predispositions
trauma of the old and the new.

Despite it all, you wouldn’t call it hell
the pain you endured in the past
hell would have been going through it all
without the support system you had.

You nearly lost it all to the shadows
but you made it out with so much more
manifesting your own enlightenment
you became the hero you longed for.

It is no longer a mystery
how the light shined through
it came through all the cracks
of the hearts that broke for you.

And if you could tell your younger self
one little clue
let it be the resounding phrase
“I forgive you”.

– Valerie Parente (2-8-2025)

Ghosts In My Room

January 3, 2020January 3, 20201 Comment

Ghosts In My Room by Valerie Parente

I see ghosts in my room
maybe because I have room for them too
they flicker and repeat like static on TV
and I’m not sure why I can see these figures in front of me
but it happens in the middle of the night, every single week.

I feel like the images I perceive
are from a dimension I shouldn’t see
always a body without a face
shadowy figures with no name
hosting a sentience in their flashing shapes.

Sometimes it’s one figure, sometimes it’s two or three
No matter the amount they’re always unique
a defining trait like a baseball cap or bangs
they always move in a particular way
and I can’t tell if they know they’re in my space.

When I see those ghosts in the night
my recurrent thought is, “You know I can see you, right?”
it almost seems like they don’t realize where they are
and I’m not sure why all of a sudden they turned up
but they’ve been showing up ever since my greatest loss.

After two months I asked one beside my bed
“How are you?” to the flashing silhouette
it gave me the middle finger
another motion in flickers
so I just laid back as it lingered.

Some people tell me I should be afraid
that ghosts are an energy I shouldn’t entertain
but I truly feel that they are harmless
and my intuition says that they have no ill intent
if anything they feel like gentle friends.

Some people say that I’m just hallucinating
that these beings are of my own making
but gut feelings never lie
and I know what I’m feeling inside
and I’m feeling that they’re separate from my mind.

I always give it a few seconds
look around to see if it’s just in my head
when I look back the images are still prevalent
in all the same outlines and repetitive movements
and to be perfectly honest, I am comforted by their existence.

– Valerie Parente (1-3-2020)

Daydreams Are Shadows

June 18, 2016Leave a comment

Daydream Castle Daydreams are shadows. They linger. They follow. To exist, a glimmer of hope has to shine down in order to cast a sincere outline whose unique shape derives from that which occupies space in reality. They are projections captured between all we are made up of and a guiding light above. No matter how much we may want to reach out and physically touch them, they will always remain intangible entities that can only be felt with the imagination we each have.