Animal 1 - The Determined Dancing Caribou Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon

Amazing Animals! The Caribou!
Animals so friendly and accommodating,
Appear so majestic that belong to the Deer species,
Alert and poised, carry themselves like dancers,
Amazonian warriors, regal and athletic,
A unique feature of both the male and the female:
Antlers - so fascinating, like an elegant branch of a tree,
Amusing brick red nose and a pair of appealing eyes.

The cohesive family of Caribou, so determined,
Tread with care, walk and run together in large numbers.
A Caribou herd may include tens of thousands,
Moving together and traveling across the Tundra.
They can swiftly run through snowy and icy path
Just feeding on reindeer moss - a type of lichen,
Pawing deep down into the fluffy snow.
Their feathered toes serving as snow shoes with insulation.

To me a dancer, what attracts me about
This marvellous animal is the endurance,
To walk on cold, icy path, for days on end
Just feeding on lichens, deep inside the snow.
Their perseverance like a dancer,
To bend, to stretch, and to rise like a ballerina,
To jump, turn and skip the slippery icy ground,
To glide and dart like a swan with graceful fortitude.