I keep my Blu-Tac in a plastic bag meant for sandwiches, or dog shit. I don’t remember
the last time I stuck up anything. I use it more as a stress-reliever, squeezing the putty so
that it fills my fist. I put down the mass and it independently resembles the negative space
within my balled-up palm. Once formed, I drop it back into the bag to clench the next time,
a slight difference in the imprint of each fist. My stress can be seen. It reminds me of the
plaster with which they used to fill the holes left by the eruption in Pompeii. They took
away the ash around the plaster and a cast of a human was found, its mouth open for flies.
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Sophie is a Bristol-based poet and copywriter. Her poetry won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize and has been published widely, including in The Rialto, The Moth and Ink Sweat and Tears. Sophie came 3rd in the Magma Poetry Competition 2022 and has been shortlisted twice for the Bridport prize. sophiedumont.co.uk