My Cardboard Balcony

The War Bear by Belinda Roddie The war bear is primed and ready to fight! Her armor is pristine, her claws sharpened, and now, she's ready to take on each knight of the Silver Kingdom. The day will end with bloodshed on the battlefield, and this means we shall handsomely reward Ursa with berries and, of course, the finest fish from the river. We love her, and vice versa: she is our queen, our savior, our delight, our fav'rite. And once the war has been won, she'll hibernate through winter's day and night, while we drink and revel until the sun has risen. Our war bear is cheered in pubs, while she rests after having sweet bear cubs!

Here we are, merely mammals, living in a cocoon of our own making. A cocoon built from steel and plastic and discarded souls. A cocoon that holds a studio apartment that we pay two thousand dollars a month for. A studio apartment where we maintain our belongings, which aren’t much – besides ourselves, our sweet tabby is our closest companion. We play board games in our cocoon. We drink wine in our cocoon. We daydream in our cocoon. But we never achieve metamorphosis. Mammals don’t get that perk.