as Goldilocks finished her review

of artisanal porridges and bohemian sitting decor,

the weight of her privilege suddenly started to tire her out, so

she rested on the one bed

that wasn’t too dark

wasn’t too colorful

but just white.

enter the unassuming bears from off page

coming to find this caucasian stranger taking their space.

Goldilocks does not leave

claims she had been in that bed all along,

that she owned the bed—

that her people had discovered the land

upon which the bed was built a long time ago,

she has more of a right to it than they do.

the bears never owned the house,

it was more an extended rental.

anything saying otherwise is fake news

told by animals who don’t know any better.

who is society going to believe:

a pretty young white girl

or these brown beasts?

Goldilocks is doing these bears a favor

retaking the area, refashioning it into

a trendy beaver bear fusion cafe.

her cousin’s

neighbor’s

sister’s

uncle’s dog

once knew a bear in passing,

so she’s pretty much an expert.

and the beaver part she’ll just make up as she goes along.

besides, who gives a damn about cultural authenticity

as long as we have free wifi?

…excuse me?

bears?

do you have a problem with this?

your tone sounds aggressive.

bears—

do we need to remind you—

this forest does not belong to you.

your paws do not belong to you.

contrary to what you may have been led to believe,

you do not have the right to bear arms

considering how prone to violence you tend to be.

stop fighting.

stop resisting.

this is just one home, one bed—

if you choose to make this a struggle,

we can end this story now.

forget the happily—

we’ll take you out of

the ‘ever after.’

Christian Perfas (also known by his stage monniker, "Soul Stuf") is a second generation, Filipino-American spoken word poet and teaching artist born and raised in Red Hook, NY and currently based in Los Angeles. Blending irreverent humor with earnest yearning, Soul loves to tackle love, loss, and belonging within the work he shares and has been honored to perform poems for The LA Times Festival of Books, San Diego Comic Con, Sofar Sounds, and The City of Paris. He is also a published author via The World Stage Press, with his debut collection, Play: A Reclamation of Soul, now available on Amazon and the WSP website. When not sharing his love of all things poetic on the stage or on the page, you can usually find Soul Stuf befriending dogs or reorganizing his vast Magic: The Gathering collection.