Costume design was late to set
The petticoats aren’t ready yet
The golden locks aren’t crimped and curled
With snaky tendrils still unfurled
Blue contacts laid for buttery eyes
The backdrop, even bluer skies
Is hoisted up and into place
And lighting cast ‘mong rental space
And counted thrice are wooden beds
With pillows for three furry heads
The prop department cooked the mush
And makeup donned their shears and brush
For caged up in the trailer lot
Thrice counted bears whose roles were sought
‘Gainst mini, little child-star fits
Clashed freely ‘gainst the writers’ wits
Whose culmination through the years
Brought many children’s eyes to tears
So set the stage again today
And thrusts the reader to the fray
ACTION
Goldilocks: (with wonderment) Oh three porridges, oh three beds, I’m choosy where I put my head. I took so long to flounce on in, through lovely forest where fairies din. And through the sunny morning time, my words so easily do rhyme. I seek out sustenance in tow, in places I do love to go. There’s nothing scary lay ahead, but fitting not within a bed.
“Hey, where’s the cue, I cannot see
Where in the script the bears all flee.
You’re telling me these things can’t speak
Whew, get away my co-stars reek!
A knife! No spoon? What script is this?”
[She grips the tool, something amiss]“Oh that’s too close, damn bears, step back!
God! Decency you grossly lack!”
Goldie stabbed out blindly thrice
Her shoes now bloody red
A crew aghast and cold as ice
And oops is all she said
Victor chose to retell Joseph Cundell’s “Story of the Three Bears” in poetic form. One of his goals with this retelling was to have Goldilocks take on the role of antagonist. He was inspired to “use structure and dramatic shifts to give the reader a sense of familiarity only for it to change to unsettling.” He did this through creating one cycle of calm and fear into his story wherein the bears should be fearful of the child. He then shifts to a sing-song, rhyme scheme reminiscent of traditional fairy tales. Finally, he closes his poem with an ABAB rhyme scheme to bring the reader out of the fairy tale wold and into real life. He also intentionally shifted the last lines of the poem to frantic dialogue to remind the reader of danger little Goldilocks poses to the bears and crew and ends with a child-like “oops.”