Solace, the Last Boutique on the Left

Julie Eliopoulos

Hey, you!
Respect the metropolis
with all of its swagger,

Hey, you!
Respect the metropolis
with all of its swagger,
those who circumvent
swinging glass doors,
who enter
with seraphic magic,
who float the economy.
A swerve, an offshoot
in a dawdling
line makes shoppers
euphoric. Somebody
forgot something back there,
in their mother’s
womb. Maybe it was
a frosty blouse
after the arctic
archipelago,
or maybe a child
lost in Tokyo or Paris,
London or Milan.
Whispers rustle
like tissue paper,
centripetal energy
in a drawstring paper bag.
A fingerprint
left on a mirror points
to say, this is it.

Julie Eliopoulos spends her days teaching and some inspiredevenings writing. Her poetry has appeared in The New Quarterly, Room (36.3) and Vallum. She lives in Milton, ON.

Pre-order Our Next Issue

ROOM 49.3 NO CANADA

In the new era of CanCon, as feminists and writers it is our task to reject this Canadian exceptionalism, this too-comfortable back-patting. How can we begin to imagine alternative arts economies, Indigenous economies around art, that start with treaty, that align with BDS? What art, what literature, would such a system free us to create?

Order our previous issue

Cover image for Room Magazine Issue 49.2, Science. Art by Candace Cosentino of an old-fashioned computer monitor with a bounty of dandelions growing from it.

ROOM 49.2 Science

Welcome to the Science issue of Room Magazine, where we privilege questions: questions about how to construct better worlds; questions about how to destroy hyper-capitalistic, necropolitical systems; questions that beget questions and new questions.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Be the first to know about our contests, calls for submissions, and upcoming events.

* indicates required

Join us on Patreon

Become a RoomMate

Seeking members who love literature, events, merchandise, and supporting marginalized creators.


Visit our Store

Share This