writing samples: Carol Cutting

Now please hurry and let us go

to visit the tigers who thrill us so.

Tigers, are solitary, and like to be alone,

for they can be found mostly on their own.

Jumping through hoops of red yellow fire,

of this routine we never do tire!

And did you know their dynasty

is the feline family?

Which simply means cats, that’s really all,

from very large to very small.

You can hear the thump, thump, thumping

as the big top’s being built.

Each piece so carefully fashioned

like a multicolored quilt.

The tent is being raised

to its highest plateau,

and when it is completed

it’s the heartbeat of the show!

I am a busy insect, well known for working hard

For I pollinate the flowers that grow in your backyard.

I also gather nectar to make honey for supplies

And I live with countless others, inside a dome shaped hive.

I am an engineer, for I construct the place we dwell.

It is made of honeycomb or a vertical six sided cell.

It is easy to spot the bright colors on my back

I’m dressed in sunny yellow and striped with brown or black.

I am an insect of the night

Who loves warm summer evenings.

Some call me luminescent, for the slow

gold glow I’m weaving.

Children love to catch me,

and place me in a jar

so they may glimpse my show up close

Of twinkling like a star.

I am a caterpillar, but someday I will grow

Into a graceful insect, that flutters to and fro.

Before I spread my colorful wings of perfect evenness

I will undergo a process known as metamorphosis.

I will need to chomp through green and ample vegetation

And reside inside a chrysalis, until my maturation.

I started out life with gills and a tail.

I swim in the water, while I in and exhale.

I am a tadpole by birth you see,

but this will all change, when I reach maturity.

Powerful jumping legs will help me expand,

from swimming in the water, to jumping on the land.

I am known for being green,

but sometimes I am brown

or somewhere in between.