Master of innuendo

 

July 4, 2012

 

She’s a master of innuendo, the suggested phrase, the connotation, a wizard of sleight of hand, so passive-aggressive even a priest would have trouble pinning her down, she always able to deny that she every led anyone to any conclusion.

Magicians would do much to study her technique because nobody can see just how she gets the rabbit into the hat in the first place. Politicians call it deniability and I can see her eyebrows rise when anyone would think to challenge her: “Wherever do you mean?”

I think that’s the thing I admire most, this ability to make words jump through hoops, dog tricks no other dog trainer ever even thought of – except perhaps for the master of all dog trickers, Shakespeare.

She can slap you in the face and you might think it was a bolt of lightning, so quick, and yet, not know what direction it came from.

It’s useless to try and defend yourself, because she has the routine down pat, always discrediting those who might unravel her game.

You want win a war of words with a shooter as sharp as she is. She has her gun drawn before you can find your holster and has her trigger pulled long before you pull out your gun.

Gun maybe the wrong weapon, Rapier fits better, her verbal skill cutting you to pieces with such ease, you don’t even realize you were in a fight.

And still, she looks so innocent, you even doubt she did it, even when she’s still holding the bloody sword.

Of course, it’s the skill I admire most, even as I bleed to death.