A coke can Crushed in the palm of my hand Crinkled metal trophy Knocked out of my hand Rolling endlessly on the uneven road Like an apple core The ring-pull the stalk The crushed centre the remains of the flesh Bitemarks like imprints Code of the mouth.

By Hatice Ismail, aged 14, of Trinity Catholic High School, Sydney Road, Woodford Green, London, who receives Michael Rosen’s Mind the Gap (Scholastic). Submitted by Kate Travers of Scaltback Middle School, Elizabeth Avenue, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, who receives the Poetry Society teachers’ newsletter, a quarterly bulletin which includes features on innovative approaches to poetry in the classroom as well as news on the latest resources, events and issues. For Poetry Society events, ring 0171- 240 4810.

This is the second poem I’ve chosen from Trinity and there were many, many more excellent poems from this school. Interesting too that the students write in very different ways. Hatice has taken the route of looking at a single object very closely and through analysis and metaphor starts to find similarities and continuities with other objects: coke can - apple core. This is that function of poetry which is to render the familiar strange, to make the reader think again about the everyday.

Michael Rosen

Next term’s guest poet will be Kit Wright, whose most recent publications are Great Snakes! (VikingPuffin) and Penguin Modern Poets 1. Please submit entries by July 31. Poems, up to 20 lines long, on any subject, should be sent to The TES, Admiral House, 66-68 East Smithfield, London E1 9XY. Please include the poet’s name, age and school and the teacher’s name.