Keep it on your radar

because it’s wise to keep an eye
      on still-unfolding situations—
they can begin to take over corners
      you’d kept clean, fill cupboards
meant for dusters and shoe polish
      in the wrong colours. I’m not saying
there’s a threat—not yet—but this
      is why we keep stocks of weed killer
mould spray.
                        This is why we fold.

Annabel Banks read English Literature at the University of Cambridge before gaining her Creative Writing MA from Royal Holloway, University of London. She is currently writing up her practice-based poetry PhD while lecturing in English and Creative Writing and running poetry workshops in ruined buildings and archives. Annabel’s work has won some prizes, most notably the University of Cambridge’s John Kinsella and Tracy Ryan Poetry Prize and Other Prize for theatre, and the Whitechapel Journal Short Fiction Prize. Her short fiction has been collected in a number of anthologies and was most recently published by Litro. Recent poems can be found in Inky Needles, Envoi, JUNGFTAK, Dirty Chai and Lockjaw. Learn more at http://www.annabelbanks.com or tweet: @annabelwrites.