Tap the wall to begin now follow their scratch. 
Step forward now touch the cold paint with your lips. 
Now whisper eyes shut what you’ll do with your hands. 
A punch through the stud singe of light on their backs.
What’s behind now in front their cover collapsed. 
A giant at last your hands set to work.
The meekness of bait. The urge of the trap. 
Dr. Genevieve Stevens is a writer and lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London. She completed her practice-based poetry PhD in 2023 under the supervision of Lavinia Greenlaw. Stevens’ poems, reviews and essays have appeared in various publications including PN Review, The Moth, New Statesman, Times Literary Supplement, The London Magazine, Poetry London, Blunt Instrument and many others. Alongside university work, Stevens runs writing courses at Charleston Farmhouse, Poetry School, Curious House and at Maidstone and Lewes Prisons. Stevens lives in East Sussex with her husband and two children, where she is working on her first full-length collection.