The poet laureate of Great Britain has composed a new verse about her nation's fallen hero:

Achilles (for David Beckham)

Myth's river- where his mother dipped him,
fished him, a slippery golden boyflowed on, his name on its lips. Without him,
it was prophesised,
they would not take Troy.

Women hid him,
concealed him in girls' sarongs; days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...
but when Odysseus came,

with an athlete's build, a sword and a
shield, he followed him to the battlefield, the crowd's roar,
and it was
sport, not war,

his charmed foot on the ball...

but then his
heel, his heel, his heel.

Unclear whether "Odysseus" in this instance is John Terry or Rio Ferdinand....