(A read-aloud story for younger children with a message on anger and bullying, and how we all choose to behave and interact with others.)

Doris Longwing was a fearsome bee.
She lived with her fearsome bee-family of three.

Doris flew about boldly. Chased a man with a mustache.
She hovered while searching for sweets in the trash.

Doris liked last drops of Kool-Aid in small paper cups.
She liked Twinkie wrappers, pie tins and lots of ketchup.

She spooked Dads on ladders cleaning gutters of leaves,
she scared kids on swing-sets, she explored in trees.
Doris scattered pic-nickers; ran skipping across campfires.
She bullied small children. Their poor parents went haywire.

One day, she pulled up from a spectacular dive;

her black-yellow stripes a bright threat in the sky.
Her body soared up like a fighter-jet-plane,
all that fresh, sticky sugar a fire in her brain.
She looked fearsome and terrible, angry and hot;
and today, truth be told, that pleased Doris a lot.

"Aah! Look!" screamed Jimmy Sack, his nose red, raw and dripping;
ice cream dripping too, down the cone he'd been licking.
Chocolate roped from his elbow as if to escape, as Jimmy Sack shrieked,
"There goes that bee again! Wait!"

"There she goes!" Jimmy rubbed his gooey arm on his knee,
wiped his sleeve on his nose...kept his eyes on that bee.

As she saw the ice cream, Doris skidded with a smirk;
then she turned her thick body around with a jerk.
Doris dive-bombed poor Jimmy, who fell from his tree,
and hit the ground badly and skinned up his knee.

Doris drew herself up as a frightful bee should;
puffed her chest just as proudly as Queen Bumble could.
Jimmy started to wail as she leapt to the sky.
Doris looked down her nose and sailed regally by.

Later, Doris would swear she could feel the awed stare
of young Jimmy's scared eyes on her sharp derriere.

Very proud, she sailed home to the Halls of her town;
her most fearsome and frightful bee-feet touching down.
Doris landed right next to a bee twice as tall.
She looked up, and then thought, "Gee, I'm still pretty small".

She looked at Madame Bumble, so tall, thick and regal.
She hid from the black, beady stare of Sid Seagulle.
When Mel Gibstinger saw she was staring he winked,
her eyes opened wide, her black cheeks turned bright pink.

Only moments ago she'd felt fearsome and tall;
back in town among bigger bees she was not tall at all.
It is hard to intimidate

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