“Hudson’s Bay Company lingerie department late 1990s” by Nicole Ardiel
Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Hudson’s Bay Company lingerie department late 1990s” by Nicole Ardiel, winner of the 2026 Arts & Letters Club of Toronto Foundation Poetry Award.
Hudson’s Bay Company lingerie department late 1990s
By Nicole Ardiel
Fingering through slender packets of panty hose, searching for size, colour, no-pinch waistband.
Never anyone of service in the intimates, only one grey employee marooned at the till, hooking
slim bra straps on clear plastic hangers or sorting fistfuls of thongs, three for $15. Hosiery, a
lonely island muzzled between furniture & appliances and long cotton nightgowns.
My first corporate job and I squeezed thighs into one lycra tube, then the other. I was told to
wear stockings, along with make-up and a suit. Bare legs a no-no, pants frowned upon.
I did what was asked of me, believed they knew better than a boho poet with a stainless-steel
mug I hefted to every morning meeting. A handmade hemp choker, festooned with rainbow fimo
beads, tied for good around my neck. Always damp from the shower, smelled like a dock line
puddled in the hull of a boat.
In the beginning, I didn’t shave, inch-long strands flattened all day under nylon and spandex. At
night, when I peeled free my shins and calves, a flush of ache, relief, trampled grass unfolding.
That lasted one winter, matted dark hairs under taupe, honey-beige, nude cross-hatched like
scribbles with a muddied felt pen.
My leg pelt sheared down the drain, disappeared like my wish for a nose piercing, hidden like
the tattoos from university, cut off like my hemp rope. Tacking back to the The Bay, buying rafts
of control top, semi-sheer, cotton blend gusset, reinforced toe.
In my purse, a bottle of clear nail polish to subdue any runs.
Copyright © Nicole Ardiel
Nicole lives, creates and plays on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən or Songhees people. Nicole won this year’s League of Canadian Poets Very Small Verse contest and has also been longlisted for the CBC Poetry Prize and Nick Blatchford Occasional Verse contest. She breathes salty sea air every day and goes through an enormous number of pen refills. Find Nicole on Instagram at nicole_ardiel_the_writer.
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