In Her Orbit

My latest pieces

“I have survived too much to go quietly.
Let a meteor take me.
Call the thunder for back up.
My death will be grand.
The land will crack,
the sun will eat itself…

-the day I leave.” – Rupi Kuar.

Creating stardust with ink since 2005. IG: @EchoesOf.Venus

My body is my home
Where my mind is free to run rampant
Dwelling vigorously,
my eternal soul
There are sturdy limbs that carry
down to the halls of my fingertips
Windows in the shape of eyes
If you look inside,
can you see the castle I have built?
I had to learn how to love myself first
before I could continue to give
Constantly in renovation
of new ways to take care
so that I am never too empty, too unkempt
too depleted, or dependent
I will never be homeless

— Take care of your home.

If I wanted to
I know how I can stop the whole world
Separating myself out-of-body
Just to become one with your every word
My own bottomless ocean of feelings…
feeling you entirely
With such unfathomable intensity
Caressing you without a single touch
I can come to you vacant
but still very much whole
so I can offer you a place to get away
And gentle reminders that keep you sane
A forbidden territory for us deeply felt kind
I find comfort in knowing that you are not alone
And not letting you forget about your soul

If I wanted to…..

It’s easy for one to hookup under the moon,
But I want you in the morning
and late afternoons.
When the sun has finished stretching
and maybe some coffee too.
Breakfast on me,
lunch on you?

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

Free yourself
Give love to yourself
Be unapologetically who you are
Who are they to try and dictate who you are or suppose to be
other than yourself?
You should be treated equally regardless
and you should love who you want to love
Demand it, shout it to the sky, fight for it if you must
You don’t owe it to anyone to give someone an explanation
You don’t have to feel embarrassed
and let it hold yourself back from Your truth
It is long overdue when it comes to spreading more peace on this earth
more equality
more acceptance
and just an abundance of love.
I promise you, there’s nothing wrong with being you.

Let love conquer hate.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

We may bleed the same blood
Drink the same water
Eat the same foods
But we do not give off the same energy
.. I am not the same as you.

I need to protect my energy.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

I apologize to myself for ever thinking
that I had to apologize to anyone
for being who I am.
For speaking up when I am wronged,
for being selfish sometimes,
for wanting better for myself,
or for loving hard..

I’m sorry you couldn’t handle my love.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

A promise broken..
You can’t wish it away
You can’t just make it disappear
like it never happened
We ignore our gut feelings
because we want to see the good
We ignore the truth
because we think it keeps us safe
But after all is said and done
what will we ever do with all this pain?
I’ve known all along.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

Before me you didn’t really understand a woman’s heart
You were young, naive, reckless
I saw potential in you, defended you, showed you deeper than skin, and loved you for who you were.
At your lowest, I was there
And as you rose, you chose someone else
So don’t come back to me when she has left you
because she couldn’t see what I saw in you…
I will not be here.

I am not your stepping stool.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

I’m not sure if it was age or just the span of years
that made me start to see everything so clearly
Maybe it was when being more successful brought out true colors
Maybe it when I noticed my support system insignificantly shrunk
or when the bare minimum just wasn’t even being reciprocated
You just learn to move on…
to keep moving up.
I was never the waiting type when it came to friends
I never let my feelings about it hider my plans, or creative ventures
I was raised to keep on going
regardless of anyone or anything
I’m used to being the one you stop calling
But I still gave people the benefit of a doubt
Even when I was the first to reach out
Busy is just busy,
until somebody needs something
And suddenly, its as if time hasn’t changed a thing
once the heart remembers who I am when you feel lonely
…But when was the last time you and I were building?
I believe, there are your acquaintances
Your ‘good time” people
And your “thick through thin” friends
How ridiculously naive I was back then
It looked back only to laugh
Not everyone is your friend
And people hardly ever have your best intentions

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

When I love
I love hard.
Harder.
Unconditionally,
Originally
Deep
like the ocean
You can explore on the way down
but never really get to the bottom of it
And is never the same
every time I let someone take a swim
Love
at its greatest form
may be when I look in your eyes
But where, Oh where does your ocean lie?

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

Love the skin you’re in.
Mine is the covering of an artist.
Radiant.
Layered with cavernous wonders, horror stories, colorful songs.
Full of ambition, strength, & devotion.
I am an ocean of secrets, nevertheless my image doesn’t make me.
Took me a long time to feel this free.
Could you love me for me?

I blamed my mother.
For everything that went wrong
in my life since she left.
When I failed, I blamed her.
When relationships died, I blamed her
When I was alone or had to put up with the mistakes of other parental figures
Because mine didn’t try hard enough to fix hers.
I knew I needed to take control of my my own life
I was just the product of her
I just couldn’t see past the lack of love and knowledge
that was never given
To prepare me for what was there to come.
It taught me one thing..
That my child will never have to go through this.

-I am not my mother.

Sometimes we don’t pay enough attention
to the little things.
I don’t know…
Perhaps I’m still grieving.
So much time has passed but maybe not enough for me.
I tend to get lost in the fade-
the sky-seas of yesterday,
stuck in the silhouettes of a daydream.
In hours’ exchange, I sit and watch memories take shape,
and then fade away.

Days slip by,
and I wonder how much of my life I’ve spent
looking backward.

I’ve just been so terribly late—
late to see the colors,
late to see the lights,
late to see all this beauty that has come
from all those sleepless nights.

Maybe I was never falling behind.
Maybe I was simply learning how to finally open my eyes.
There is so much more to life.

– I just never learned how to cope.

Illustration by: Fatima Seehar
Copyright 2019 Valerie Sanchez

She is not to be confused
or misled
She never cared for perfection
Or the value of riches
Just meaningful connections
Ones that she cannot dismiss
The more humbling individuals
But those who can’t hide it
Because many hardly ever come to you beautiful
But thats exactly what she liked in people.

Let me go

It never used to feel like this

Your hands wrapped around my neck

I admit,

I believed you time and time again

Pictured you in spaces I’ve

never been able to see anyone else in

I can’t believe I really believed you this time

Perhaps it was just my soul yearning?

With this sickening amount of undefeated hope

I’ve been carrying

For a deep kind of love

A feeling that just does not cease

and can be easily confused

There’s one thing I know for sure

With you,

I’ve grown so distastefully displeased and bored.

Don’t tell me that you want to give me your heart,
To me, that’s far too cruel.
I’d rather feel your love while you’re free,
Still wholly yourself, still you.

Because I know what it’s like
to lose pieces of yourself for someone else—
I was once that fool.

Those invisible promise rings
Broken by a changed cosmic touch
I never wanted things to be altered so much
It’s all my fault, this detrimental expense
All of this heartache
for a should of- could of- would of been
I should of known it could be this destructive
Plummeting down on my world like a massive meteorite
I don’t think you’re aware of all that will be destroyed
I never thought you would have been someone to threaten my life
but I’ve seen this all before
Although you knew that I have practiced how to save myself
How sickening was it of you to barge in
and take what was left
You were never really here for me
This was always a recurring problem
A stupid constant flaw in my reality
It seems I can never purge my universe of them

Don’t tell me that you want to give me your heart,
To me that’s just way too cruel.
I rather feel your love while you’re free and still you
Because I too was once that fool.

My latest pieces

Your Home

A Love Language

Pride

Alien

Sorry, not sorry

Promises

Stepping Stool

“Friends”

Oceans

My Skin

Daughter

Daydream

The Real Deal

Set Me Free

The Only Flower

Planet Destroyer

Finders Keepers