Carl the Cookie Carrier
From the book My Cat Knows Karate
I’m Carl the Cookie Carrier.
I carry cookies well.
I carry ones with chocolate chips
and ones with caramel.
I transport tea cakes tactfully.
With wafers I’m an ace.
My gift for lifting biscuits
is the ultimate in grace.
I’m skilled with Scottish shortbread.
With digestives I’m the best.
With gingersnaps I have no lapse.
It’s obvious I’m blessed.
I’m masterful with macaroons
and snickerdoodles too.
I’ll haul them all regardless
if they’re pink or green or blue.
And when I carry cookies,
I eat only one or two.
So I have just one question…
May I carry yours for you?
— Kenn Nesbitt
Copyright © 2018. All Rights Reserved.
Reading Level: Grade 2
Topics: Food Poems, Poems about Kooky Characters
Poetic Techniques: Alliteration, Assonance, Descriptive Poems
Word Count: 105
About This Poem
Every now and then, I like to write a poem about a person with an unusual job. I thought it would be funny if someone claimed to be an expert at delivering or carrying something that they really wanted for themselves, like money, or cookies. Could you blame a "cookie carrier" for eating one or two of the cookies they carried? I'm pretty sure I would make a lousy pizza-delivery person. I like pizza so much, I might be tempted to take slices from the pizzas I was supposed to deliver. I don't suppose customers would be too happy to receive their pizzas with a slice or two missing. By the way, this poem is another one where I use a lot of alliteration. You'll see that I repeat the beginning consonants of words like "transport," "tea," and "tactfully," or "masterful" and "macaroons." But this poem also has some good examples of assonance. Assonance is where you repeat the vowel sounds in the stressed syllables of words. For example, "with wafers I'm an ace" repeats the long "a" sound in "wafers" and "ace," and "my gift for lifting biscuits" repeats the short "i" sound in "gift," "lifting," and "biscuits." Can you find any other uses of assonance in this poem?
From the book My Cat Knows Karate
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