'Lingerie Mayor' Vows to Stay in Office

Appeared in the Press-Citizen January 28, 2008

From negligee to negligence, and bra
to public brawl, it’s clothing and not closure
that’s gotten the mayor’s office its exposure—
not what people said but what they saw.
To Eleanor and her stockings, Monica’s dress,
and Hillary’s skirt-or-suit aporia,
we can add these skivvies south of Victoria
in our discourse of pretentiousness.
For a woman involved in politics—
her city’s in the black (as is she)—
there’s simply no such thing as parity,
not when it comes to the clothes that woman picks.
Her critics should look, instead, at the monsieurs,
for even Arnold’s posed in less than hers.