The Monokini, or Explaining the Election

Poetry Month, Poem A Day Challenge, Poem No. 5

Explaining the Election

We are a people
who, in 1964,
when Rudi Gernreich,
Austrian fashion designer,
invented the topless bikini
and called it the monokini,*
went for it. Well,
half of us did.
“It is feminist.”
“It is objectification.”
It is an etymological error.
Gernreich received fan mail
mostly from men.
None from grammarians.
We are a people
who believe
anything, who
can make
so much
of so little.

Image from Life magazine.
‘kini’ is not Latin