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)
Semi-Lucid by Valerie Parente
I have semi-lucid dreams
with a blurry kind of vividness
I am aware of my surroundings
but I am just a witness
I cannot actively make decisions
prefrontal cortex with a stillness
I go on watching, learning
yet I am somehow complicit
like I can choose my moves
but my stance can only pivot
through endless possibilities
yet my discretion has a limit.
I think being semi-lucid
mirrors my awake state
when it comes to my obsessions
and the anxiety they create
because I am like a witness
I watch myself fixate
and all I can do is bystand
hoping others can separate
the me that knows it’s crazy
with the me that’s crazy anyways.
When the moon crosses the sky
and the dreamcatcher chases me alive
I am tripping through the semi-lucid
rediscovering the fabric of my mind.
– Valerie Parente (4-26-2025)
The False Promise of the Damsel in Distress
by Valerie Parente
I don’t think enough girls were taught the difference
between being in love and being obsessed,
so many stories of womanhood
were really stories of sickness,
that to attract a man
you have to be a damsel in distress,
that happily ever after was the goal
and your journey before was meaningless.
They taught us that pity
means he endlessly cares
and that negative attention
means love is in the air.
They said there has to be an obstacle
you can only overcome with him there,
that your accomplishments are null
unless a prince witnessed the despair.
So here’s to the girls
who broke their own hearts
taking on the damsel archetype
before adulthood could even start.
We are not ruined beyond repair,
we’re just a little scarred;
may we raise our daughters
as we raise our bars.
– Valerie Parente (3-28-2025)
Free In My Own Skin by Valerie Parente
If there were no men I’d be naked all of the time.
If there was no threat I’d be making my own highs.
If there was no sex I’d be vacant in my mind.
And I am compelled to be a sin in their eyes.
I don’t do provocative for them, I do it for me
because being feminine makes me feel free
and the fact that that’s a danger to society
is nothing short of chauvinism at its peak.
– Valerie Parente (7-11-2024)
Lone Wolf by Valerie Parente
Maybe I’m just a lone wolf,
me, myself, and I,
don’t have to worry about a pack,
it’s just me, myself, and rhymes.
Baby I’m just a lone wolf,
ever so hard to swoon,
but why do I still blush,
when you howl at the moon?
You should stay away from me,
I can tear you apart,
if I feel the slightest threat,
I’ll turn the predator in me on.
But even a lone wolf
has that canine inside,
with so much love for people,
but it’s people who should hide.
– Valerie Parente (7-5-2024)
Homebody by Valerie Parente
I was looking for a place to call home
when a realization flashed like a spark,
that home is those moments in time,
times when loved ones left their mark.
And moments in time
are always doomed to depart,
to become invisible and intangible
except for in my heart.
Home is not something I will lose
if it is already lost
and in that way there is nothing new to fear
unless you fear what we are.
– Valerie Parente (6-14-2024)
Underwater by Valerie Parente
I have this recurring dream
where I am under an aquatic spell
that allows me to breathe underwater
just me, and no one else.
It is a gift I forget I have
and to forget is a gift as well.
What a thrill to be able to remember,
remember but never dwell.
Like a mermaid in the sea
I am intrinsically compelled
to harbor feelings deep as the ocean
far from the surface that swells.
But living life underwater
can also feel quite like hell
because when mermaids cry
you can never really tell.
– Valerie Parente (1-12-2024)
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