I was pulled out from Cromwell’s scabbard

Leaving rust inside

Then a bullet hit my blade

ricocheting off behind

I was pulled out from a man’s head

Blood dripping from his eye

Suddenly I went through somebody

Who was passing by

By Richard Moizer, 10, who receives Chasing the sun: a journey around the world in verse, donated by Simon and Schuster. Submitted by Angela Thompson of Kirk Fenton Parochial Church of England Primary School, Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, who receives the Poetry Society’s 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 071 240 4810.

The details are what convince here (the rust inside the scabbard, for example), that and the freshness - even cheekiness - of the angle, which is matched by the insouciance of the tone. I liked, too, the suddenness of the opening, and the perfectly pitched open-endedness of the closure.