Quadripartita Ratio (or Saturday Night at the Disco)

 

[The four fundamental rhetorical operations or quadripartita ratio are: addition (adiectio), omission (detractio), permutation (immutatio) and transposition (transmutatio). This poem is not about Rhetoric.]

 

Quadripartita Ratio

 

Rhetoric allows for deviation

of the accepted form,

Martial marshalled his thoughts

and subverted praise to damnatory effect.

I sidled up to attractive women -

sharp as a bent nail,

cool as a gherkin -

perhaps the smell put them off.

 

Addition

 

Or perhaps accumulation:

one truth followed by a chain

of undisputed facts, one arm uplifted

the face of sincerity behind a lectern.

I spouted trivial pursuit answers,

any unchecked factoid,

bamboozled with woozles,

instead of complimenting a dress.

 

Omission

 

Speaking less, nodding agreement,

offering empty discourse markers but

forgetting eye contact and even

to listen for clues and indicators.

I often wondered why their eyes

looked over my shoulder

at the saturday-night-fevered fool

who wouldn’t be alone at the bus-stop later.

 

Permutation

 

The same things said in different ways,

variety bringing spice to mundane truths:

repetition teaches the donkey,

permutation laminates the message.

I shifted words and lines

to no effect at all, for it’s the singer

not the song, the surface not the core,

whoever listens on the balcony.

 

Transposition

 

Turn the argument on its head.

Change viewpoints, list merits

as deficiencies and vice versa

change a fortiori to ad feminam.

I swapped chatter for silence,

pretended disinterest, danced alone,

became interesting and different

to gain success unvalued by either party.