Tag Archives: rhetoric

Proverb

Proverb: One of several terms describing short, pithy sayings. Others include adage, apothegm, gnome, maxim, paroemia, and sententia.


A. “If a man can jump through the eye of a camel, he’s very, very small.” I learned that saying from my grandmother, but you could jump through the eye of a bumblebee you slow-moving, small-time excuse for an appliance repairman. My dishwasher has been hemorrhaging for two days. You keep saying the part will be in soon. What’s your idea of soon, never?

B. Madam, please forgive the tardiness of the part. It is coming all the way from China where there is social unrest and a marginal postal system. It can take up to six months for an order to arrive. Also, I know I was not blessed with a tall stature, but you don’t have to call it to my attention with your obscure proverb. I may be small in height, but my heart and one of my appendages are quite large. I had rheumatic fever as a child and it left me with an enlarged heart. My pinkie is one-inch longer than my ring finger. You can see, I am not all small.

A. Wait, wait! Did you say six months? I can go to Home Depot and get the part today. What is wrong with you? How do you stay in business?

B. Stay in business? I’m going to hit you over the head with this pre-cut two-foot half-inch pipe and burglarize your home. I don’t think I have the strength to kill you—I am such a little man. Get over there by the refrigerator. Now, get ready.

C. A chorus of voices: Happy Birthday Marjorie! Music begins. Appliance repairman starts to dance swinging his tool belt over his head. Marjorie is standing by the refrigerator crying. What a mess.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Prozeugma

Prozeugma (pro-zoog’-ma): A series of clauses in which the verb employed in the first is elided (and thus implied) in the others.


A. I took the money. The big screen TV. The microwave. The laptop. The coffee grinder. The rubber gloves.

B. Why did you take the rubber gloves Mr. Tronski?

A. I had intended to wash the dishes, so I put on the rubber gloves. When I left, I forgot to take them off. I forgot to wash the dishes too.

B. What were you going to do with what you had in your possession?

A. I was going to donate it to the nursing home where my mother lives. The money will be used for magazine subscriptions. The TV, entertainment. The microwave, popcorn & mac and cheese. The laptop, writing letters and receiving letters, and playing Wordscape. The coffee grinder goes without saying. The rubber gloves, thrown away.


B. Ok Tronski, we are charging you with burglary and locking you up.

A: What? I took all that stuff from my own home—it’s all mine. Just because my insane neighbor calls 911 and you “catch” me with a carload of stuff, doesn’t mean I stole it. Now I understand why I’m here.

B. My apologies Mr. Tronski. You are free to go.

A. No problem.

Mr. Tronski sped away from the police station. He was laughing at the police officer’s total stupidity. He had, indeed, committed burglary and now he was on his way to sell the stuff he had robbed. Then, he heard sirens and saw flashing lights behind him.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Pysma

Pysma (pys’-ma): The asking of multiple questions successively (which would together require a complex reply). A rhetorical use of the question.


A. Why should I? What’s the use? Why did you choose me? Do you really think I would want to? Have you done it with anyone else before? Will I have to climb any stairs? Is it more than five miles away? Is this your idea? Are you sober? Will it cost me anything?

B. It could cost you your if you life if you don’t shut the hell up with the questions.

A. Does that mean you’re going to answer my questions?

B. I’m warning you, you wise ass. Let me ask you a question. Why do you want to taunt me with your bullshit?

A. Bullshit? How do you get that? Is there something I’m saying that I don’t realize I’m saying? Have I missed or skipped something? Did I misunderstand you?

B. Ok, that’s it. I’m going to ask you again the question I asked you in the first place. Your answer will be yes or no, and NO DAMN QUESTIONS. Here’s the question again: Do you want to go out for sushi?

A. I’m 99% sure that I do. But, can you answer my questions first?

B. No.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Ratiocinatio

Ratiocinatio (ra’-ti-o-cin-a’-ti-o): Reasoning (typically with oneself) by asking questions. Sometimes equivalent to anthypophora. More specifically, ratiocinatio can mean making statements, then asking the reason (ratio) for such an affirmation, then answering oneself. In this latter sense ratiocinatiois closely related to aetiologia. [As a questioning strategy, it is also related to erotima {the general term for a rhetorical question}.]


When I was 10: Can I become a millionaire? Yes! This is America—anything’s possible.

When I was 20: Can I become a millionaire? It’s possible! Finish college and move on up.

When I was 30: Can I become a millionaire? There’s a chance. Manage my investments and take risks.

When I was 40: Can I become a millionaire? Fat chance. I lost everything in the stock market and got laid off. There’s still an outside chance to make a million, but it’s not going to be pretty.

When I was 50: I am a millionaire. I’m living in Costa Rica. I barely escaped the US—I walked across the Tijuana border crossing, took a bus to Mexico City, and flew to Costa Rica. Here in Costa Rica, I “collect” ancient artifacts. I do a service to collectors by displaying them on the dark web. Actually I am a multimillionaire, but I’m stuck in Costa Rica.

When I was 60: When will I be paroled? I just wanted to visit my dying father. Bam: handcuffed at the luggage carousel at LAX. Trial. Conviction. Prison. 10 years. Parole possible in 5 years, and my father’s still alive. Damn.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Bracketed text added by Gorgias.

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Repotia

Repotia (re-po’-ti-a): 1. The repetition of a phrase with slight differences in style, diction, tone, etc. 2. A discourse celebrating a wedding feast.


1. A. Did you kill your neighbor? Did you end his life with a kitchen knife? He’s full of holes—you must’ve been enraged. Did you do your neighbor in? Was it you? Look, all you need to do is answer yes, or no. Did you whack your neighbor?

B. Why would I kill my neighbor. That goddamn piece of crap had everything he wanted and needed. His cute-ass wife supported him with money and affection. She might’ve made a pass at me a couple of times, but nothing to build a relationship on.

A. How do you account for the blood on your hands.

B. I slipped on his blood a fell down, bracing my fall with my hands. It looks bad, but it isn’t.

A. Ok, do you know who might’ve killed your neighbor—who put him in his grave? Who sent him South? Gave him angel wings?

B. As strange as it seems, it might be my wife. We had had sex just once in nine years and then, all of a sudden one Saturday afternoon she pushes me down on the bed & tells me to wait. After five minutes she comes back wearing the Frederick’s of Hollywood nightie I got her for our wedding night nearly twenty years ago. It was unexpected to say the least. It was like having sex with Wonder Woman, or Stormy Daniels, or our pool woman, Sassy. Anyway, about a week later my wife tells me she’s pregnant, and I’m the “naughty” man who did it. She cited our recent sexual activity and complimented my virility. What she didn’t know was that I had had a vasectomy five years ago. I had a lot of reasons, but the most important one was I did not want have children with that shallow, conniving bitch. If I was going to kill anybody it would be her, not Marcus. He was a fun loving guy who probably knocked up my wife. The DNA tests will tell us.

A. Thank you for your cooperation. We’re going to have to take you down to the station. Your wife tells us you confessed to her, and from what she tells us about your drinking, your drug problem, jealousy, physical abuse and explosive homicidal temper, I’m betting you killed Marcus when he affirmed to you that your wife’s baby was his. You had blood on your hands and a pain in your heart. Do you want to confess now, or wait until we get to the station?

B. That bitch. Marcus’ wife gave me a thumb drive with video from their security cam. I was going to toss it, but now I’m going to give it to you. I wanted to protect my wife, but now she can go to hell. When you plug it into your computer, you’ll see my wife murdering Marcus. End of story.

2. You call this a wedding feast? Tater Tots and baloney sandwiches—no cheese, no mustard? Oh, who the hell cares anyway? Definitely not the bride and groom who march to a different drummer, like a couple of Lemmings headed over a cliff into a marital abyss.

I’ve known Bob all my life. I’ve been to all of his weddings—4 I think, but who’s counting? I’m not. Anyway, marriage is a thinly veiled excuse for driving another person crazy. After the vows, everything you’ve kept hidden from each other seeps out. Your chronic jock itch, her prosthetic nose, your hepatitis, her inflated boobs. These can all be game changers, and they often are. I mean, who wants to live with a man with chronic jock itch, right Bob?

And then there’s the in-laws! Bob’s dad is a convicted child molester. His mother’s on probation for nearly beating a 78 year old woman to death over a parking spot. Martha’s dad is a mystery. Nobody knows (or asks) where his money comes from. Martha’s mom sits in her filthy stained house dress, drinks little glasses of wine all day, and swears at the TV.

Well Bob and Martha, if you can steer clear of your families and keep lying to each other, you marriage has a chance. Let’s raise our glasses to the bride and groom. “May your marriage survive the first two weeks.”


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Restrictio

Restrictio (re-strik’-ti-o): Making an exception to a previously made statement. Restricting or limiting what has already been said.


I said a few weeks ago that the people who stormed the Capitol Building were a group of tourists on their lunch break who were hungry and angry. Well, although I stick to the major framework of my belief, additional information has come to light on FOX News, to wit, the people are members of Militia Clubs of America whose bus dropped them off at the wrong venue. They thought they were at the Washington National Zoo, where they had come to liberate their mascot that had been “kidnapped” by US Government Animal Control Agents. They believed their peacock, Himmler, was being held against its will and subject to government brainwashing.

Given this new information from a highly credible source, I am willing to revise my initial statement to take into account the latest revelations. Choose which version you may, as long as you choose only one version. Even we can’t believe both at the same time, but as loyal Ultra-Conservatives, we are required to believe, and espouse, one. Take your pick and spread the word.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Sarcasmus

Sarcasmus (sar’kaz’-mus): Use of mockery, verbal taunts, or bitter irony.


“You look like a gerbil in a dress. What are you going to do about it? Cut down on the food pellets? Work out on your hamster wheel more often and more vigorously? Wear a mumu? Hide in your cage? Liposuction?” I was mean. I was angry. I was tired of dating a bowl full of jello.

That said, you’ve got to remember how you got this way and do it in reverse. I think ice cream played a role—you actually did scream for ice cream when I duct-taped you to a chair to keep you out of the refrigerator. Then, you whined like a dog begging for a treat. I turned you loose when you threatened to call the police. With the duct-tape, I didn’t know how you planned to do it, but I cut you loose anyway. You ran for the refrigerator and tore open the freezer door. There it was: a gallon of chocolate marshmallow raspberry pistachio chunky chocolate swirl. I called it swill instead of swirl. Before I could say “Go for it fatso,” you had the soup spoon going like a jackhammer and your mouth and chin were smeared with ice cream. I could almost see your girth growing. You finished one gallon of fat-laden ice crap in 25 minutes.

That was it, I said “Goodbye fatty. Have fun at the trough” and headed for the door. You stuck your finger down your throat and a torrent of melted ice cream spewed out between your chocolate-stained lips. “Oh God, now it’s bulimia?” I yelled. This was exactly the moment I realized that I loved you. Together, we could beat this fat lard-ass thing. With your consent, I locked you in the bedroom. It had a bathroom attached. I fed you healthy meals 2 times a day. In three months you had your old body back again—after we had the sagging skin tucked. When we had sex now, I had no trouble funding your vagina. Life was perfect.

Then, I came home early one day and there was a huge fat guy on the couch feeding you M&Ms through a funnel. I called you lots of names, but I think the best was “fudge sucker.” I packed my bags and left. I will never call anybody sweetheart ever again, and it’s all your fault, you blubber-breathed scale buster. You brain dead butt wind blower.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Scesis Onomaton

Scesis Onomaton (ske’-sis-o-no’-ma-ton): 1. A sentence constructed only of nouns and adjectives (typically in a regular pattern). 2. A series of successive, synonymous expressions.


Speeding Cars, roaring trucks, whooshing bicycles, squeaky scooters, rolling roller skates, clunking big wheels, chugging trains. I know this is crazy, but I’ve been thinking about wheels for the past couple of weeks. I ran over a grey squirrel with my truck. I can’t stop thinking about rolling along, and then suddenly a squirrel ran out of some bushes right by my truck. He was under my front wheel before I could even hit the brakes. I pulled over and looked out the back window. He was flatted and his eyeballs had popped out. I was nearly sick to my stomach. I got out of my truck and kicked him into the gutter so he wouldn’t get run over any more, or cause somebody to swerve and get into an accident. I picked up some leaves from the road shoulder and covered his corpse, which was steaming in the late October chill.

That night, I had a nightmare. I had befriended the dead squirrel and named him Nutty. He was alive. We were riding down the street in my truck when, all of a sudden, Nutty jumped out the the truck window. I heard the rear tire go budda-bump. “Oh my God it’s Nutty. I’ve run him over again!” I stopped and jumped out of my truck, only to be sickened by what I saw: A little girl with a tire track across her stomach and blood trickling from her mouth. I called 911, but I kept getting the same message over and over: “You have killed a little girl with your big truck. You had better call Triple-A.” I called Triple-A. I got a recording: “We are unable to dispose of any corpses right now. Please call back later.” I woke up screaming. I was terrified. I was totally freaked out. I was fear itself!

That’s when I started thinking about wheels. I’m not sure why. I got a thick notebook and started writing down everything I could think of that has wheels. I organized it alphabetically A-Z. Airplanes were my fist entry. When I got to an alphabet letter that I couldn’t think of a wheel for, I drew a frowny face and moved on. Then, one evening there was a knock on my door: “Girl scout cookies.” I opened the door. It was a little girl and what I assumed was her mother. I was startled. The little girl looked almost identical to the little girl I had run over in my nightmare! It was weird. I tried to hold back, but I was so glad to see her that I took a step toward her with my arms open wide. She backed up and fell down my porch steps. Luckily, her mother was there to help her up. As she limped away holding her mother’s hand, she turned and said, “I’m glad you didn’t call 911. It’s not like I’m dead or anything.”


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Sententia

Sententia (sen-ten’-ti-a): One of several terms describing short, pithy sayings. Others include adage, apothegem, gnome, maxim, paroemia, and proverb.


“Always do what you’re afraid to do.” Because of that saying I am a different person. I used to be cautious and calculating—steering around my fear. Safety was all that mattered. When it was cold I wore mittens. When the speed limit was 25, I went twenty five. I paid my bills on time and ate the same healthy food night after night. I had my oil changed regularly. I crossed at the crosswalk when the light said “Go.” I always wore a condom. I took a cab late at night, even if I was only a block from where I lived. I always wore my seatbelt. I wore my face mask and got all my vaccinations. I wore sunglasses. I wore SPF 90 sun block. I had a colonoscopy every year. I wore Birkenstocks. I kept the batteries fresh in my smoke detectors. I sprayed my legs with DEET when I went hiking in the woods. I bought my cars on the basis of their safety ratings.

Then I met her.

The first thing she asked me was “What are you afraid to do?” I said, “The usual. Meeting Freddy Krueger, jumping out of airplanes, climbing mountains, diving off a cliff.” I was lying, there were enough more fears to fill a three-ring binder. That’s when she said it: “Always do what you’re afraid to do.” The “always” part of her words of wisdom is what threw me. I think there’s a saying about the pitfalls of “always,” but I don’t know what it is. Also, I am unsure of the benefits of always doing what I’m afraid to do.

So, she talked me into skydiving. We went through a couple of hours of training, donned our helmets and parachutes, got into the plane, and took off. We got up to around 3,000 feet and the instructor told her to “Stand in the door” and then “Go!” and then she jumped. It was my turn next. As I stood in the door, I saw her tumbling through the air and hit the ground with a puff of dust, like a bag of cement. The instructor pulled me away from the door. I sat down and we circled down toward the landing strip. When we landed, there was an ambulance pulling away from the drop zone.

Now, safety matters even more to me. I’ve added hand washing, changing sheets and pillowcases every other day, and spraying disinfectants to my safe-living repertoire. I’m thinking of changing my name to Marty Caution. Although I didn’t go through with the jump, I will not do anything again that I’m the slightest bit scared of. Lately, that means going up and down the stairs.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Simile

Simile (si’-mi-lee): An explicit comparison, often (but not necessarily) employing “like” or “as.”


Sarah was like a noisy go-kart stuck on a slow track at the mall. Around and around we went, and we never got anywhere, and she wouldn’t shut up. I felt like a beaver with dentures, but I didn’t complain: I couldn’t complain. I was grateful to have somebody who, in my opinion, was beautiful: long blond hair, blue eyes, classic hourglass shape, the whole nine yards. However, she was the stupidest person I’ve ever known. Her brain was like a walnut. She was as articulate as a bathtub. She had the taste of a cockroach. Having a job was, to her, like having cancer.

So, why did I love her? Two reasons. (1) Her parents are filthy crazy rich; (2) She is the most trusting, giving, faithful, caring, gentle, loving human being I have ever known.

We’ll get somewhere someday. We’ll be like two pelicans pumping our wings over the Gulf of Mexico, heading to Cancun or maybe Corpus Christi. Our pelican bills will be filled with money. Our pelican hearts will be filled with joy.

Oh, a text message from Sarah: “I am like a smart shopper. I am returning you.”

I texted: “What the hell did that mean? Return me? Return me where?”

She texted me: “The bar where I found you.”

I threw my phone on the floor. It popped in half, just like me and Sarah.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Skotison

Skotison (sko’-ti-son): Purposeful obscurity.


A: The elephant has danced with the penguin.

B: It is time to hammer the nail. I am waiting under the old wagon. Can you send me mike clicks so I can confirm your identity?

A: No can do, Soda Bobcat. The click code is compromised. Let me use the belch code: Burp. Barup. Burrrup. Burp. Burp. Burp. Braaaah. Please acknowledge.

B: Roger. Got it. Punting Tuna.

A: I’m headed for the old wagon now. Confirm your location.

B: Under the old wagon. I am removing some drapery to facilitate our maneuvers. Soon, the garden plot will be plowed, and, I suspect, deeply too.

A: Yes, the garden tool is ready as it always is. After maneuvers, let’s debrief at the Shining Lock Pick.

B: Roger that.

A: Roger. I’m almost at the old wagon. I’m holding the garden tool in my hand. Out.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99. There is also a Kindle edition available.

Syllepsis

Syllepsis (sil-lep’-sis): When a single word that governs or modifies two or more others must be understood differently with respect to each of those words. A combination of grammatical parallelism and semantic incongruity, often with a witty or comical effect. Not to be confused with zeugma: [a general term describing when one part of speech {most often the main verb, but sometimes a noun} governs two or more other parts of a sentence {often in a series}].


I smelled roses as I walked through the arboretum, and danger. It was summer and I was surrounded by blooming flowers and idiots throwing frisbees. Why did I feel this way? Why did my life go on in anticipation of occurrences that never occurred? As I walked along, I remembered years and years ago when I had taken acid and gone to the arboretum. I was accosted by a talking sunflower. The sunflower told me to pick him and him take home with me. He looked like standing liquid, flashing shades of green. His giant yellow head actually looked like the sun! I cut his stem with my Swiss Army knife (everybody had one back then—mine was pink). The sunflower whimpered as he was cut. I almost stopped cutting, but the hapless flower insisted that I go on. If I got caught liberating a flower from the arboretum, there would be a $200 fine, and my mother’s wrath. I hid the sunflower in my Grateful Dead T-shirt, nearly crushing it. I slowly walked home and put it in a vase. It had stopped talking, and that was ok. I petted the flower and it wiggled and cooed. I just stood there for what seemed like an hour (or two). When I became “normal” again I needed herbal tea, to take a shower, and a session with my shrink.

Well, here I am again. Back in the arboretum. I came to the same stand of sunflowers and to my senses. “There is nothing to fear but too much beer!” I yelled at the sunflowers. It was characteristically stupid. There’s so much beyond too much beer to fear; like wearing adult diapers, or forgetting your phone number, or losing things. The arboretum hadn’t changed in 50 years, but I had. That was the danger I had sensed as I walked down the arboretum’s path. I carried the cargo of time.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Bracketed text added by Gorgias.

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A video reading is on YouTube: Johnnie Anaphora

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Symploce

Symploce (sim’-plo-see or sim’-plo-kee): The combination of anaphora and epistrophe: beginning a series of lines, clauses, or sentences with the same word or phrase while simultaneously repeating a different word or phrase at the end of each element in this series.


Every time I think of you I feel so upset I want to run away and hide, and travel and try to forget. Every time I think of you, like a fool, I make your image so vivid I can’t erase it even though I struggle to forget. Every time I think of you I feel like I’m flipping through a book telling the story of how I failed—the story of my regret—a story with a clear ending, like a wall, or a cliff, or a fence, and still, I can’t forget.

I’m going to your house tonight to cry in the street, like a lunatic, like a sick coyote, like a howler monkey with no self-respect, flailing in the rain out there. Maybe you’ll invite me in for a cup of tea instead of calling the police. I hate getting pushed in the cruiser, laughed at, and driven home, like I’ve got Alzheimer’s or something and shouldn’t be out on my own.

I just keep hearing the Doors’ Jim Morrison singing “baby won’t you light my fire? Our love can be a funeral pyre.” That’s why I was going to ignite myself in front of her house, but it’s raining so hard I can’t get myself lit.

I know Annie could give a shit less if I went up in flames—in fact, she’d probably be relieved. But there she was standing in the doorway, motioning me toward her. I ran toward her, oblivious to everything else. An SUV ran over me. It broke both my legs, my right arm, ruptured my spleen, bruised me all over, and snapped four of my ribs. I’ve been in the hospital for two weeks and Annie hasn’t visited yet. When I get out of the hospital, I think I’ll give igniting myself outside her house another try. Or, maybe I’ll go some place in search of wisdom, like Skippy’s Bar and Grill, the community college, or Tibet.

Oh my God! It’s Annie! She‘s here! Annie!

Annie: “Hi Johnny. I’m here to give you what you need.”

She pulled a water bottle out of her purse, took off the cap and started pouring it’s contents on my bed. It wasn’t water, it was white gas—the stuff you use in Coleman stoves or lanterns. The nurse got the bottle away from her and wrestled her to the floor. The police came and took her away.

At that second, I realized Annie is crazier than me, and I would be so much better off if I never saw her again. But on the other hand, she loved me so much she wanted to murder me; so I would feel better. There’s something to that, right?


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99. There is a Kindle edition available too under the same title.

A video reading is available on YouTube: Johnnie Anaphora

More Adventures: Rational Enquirer

Synaloepha

Synaloepha (sin-a-lif’-a): Omitting one of two vowels which occur together at the end of one word and the beginning of another. A contraction of neighboring syllables. A kind of metaplasm.


I was scrubbing the cushion like a maniac. I had spilled some of Mother’s special pickle relish on the sofa—‘bout one of the worst things that could possibly happen.

She made the relish in 1993 and it had magically “retained” its freshness. Every morning, Mother used tweezers to put a microscopic bit of her relish on her lightly toasted English muffin, along with Nutella and horseradish. She swore the mix, since it contained the ageless relish, was keeping her young, although to anybody who bothered to look, Mother was aging like the rest of us.

I had spilled the relish on the sofa when I was headed to the kitchen to pour it down the sink; to replace it with a fresh batch. I did that every week. In a way, dumping the relish was mean, but in another way it was a caring gesture that I made to keep Mother feeling good. I thought it was harmless until she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

When she got home from the doctor, instead of being angry and sad, she told me to make ten English muffins. I made them with the usual toppings. Over the course of five hours, she ate them all and then went to bed.

The next morning she ate all of the remaining relish. I didn’t have the heart to tell her the jar was filled with relish I had gotten at the supermarket two days ago. After she vomited, she watched CNN all day, cursing at the TV as usual. Six months later, she died. She was buried in a beautiful cemetery with a valley view. I know this is crazy, but every week I leave a new jar of relish on her grave. I was ashamed for what I had done, but at the same time, I was glad I had done it. Shame and happiness keep grating against each other in my conscience—in my soul. I think the opposition between good and bad engaged by a single deed is operative in everything we do. We may not be aware of it, but “good” may have bad consequences, and “bad” may have good consequences. Emphasis on one, blinds us to the other. But where does the “emphasis” come from? Circumstances. Nothing transcendent. Nothing psychological. Just circumstances: the contestable elements that constitute the human habitat: that surround us and affect us conceptually and physically. Strangely, I want to say I “relish” this insight.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99.

See a video reading on YouTube: Johnnie Anaphora

Synathroesmus

Synathroesmus (sin-ath-res’-mus): 1. The conglomeration of many words and expressions either with similar meaning (= synonymia) or not (= congeries). 2. A gathering together of things scattered throughout a speech (= accumulatio [:Bringing together various points made throughout a speech and presenting them again in a forceful, climactic way. A blend of summary and climax.])


The King: Elm, helm, realm—my ship, my wheel, my realm. A confused mess—missing it’s head and tail. My incoherence rages like a pox as I stand, sit, jump, run, skip hoping not to slip and smash my head on the altar set below. Why me? Why must I be charred and tossed into the sea? Are the fish hungry? Do the dark blue crabs await my arrival, claws aloft, swaying in the sea’s rhythmic current, ready to rip and tear apart and greedily consume the bloody remains of me?

There is unrecognized madness shining at me from your murderous dream. You will kill me. Then what? What is your hoped for future? What is next? And more telling: why are you doing this to me? Fame? I am a Royal failure who is nevertheless dearly loved. My murder will induce wrath—you will be hunted like a pack of hydrophobic wolves. Fortune? I have nearly bankrupted the realm throwing massive banquets, drinking, whoring, and more whoring, and buying armor, crossbows, horses, beautifully emblazoned shields—each with my portrait facing the enemy. And the best of all: giant boulder-throwing catapults. Too bad we have no enemies. Fame? Fortune? Fame: You will obtain infamy, not fame and be hated by all who hear your names. Fortune: there is none. Bank on it and you will die in penury, as homeless dogs rotting by the roadside, stinking up the realm. So, in summary, cease this mad under. . . gaaa Oh God! I am slain.

The Assailants: Oi—he was always such a bloody blabbermouth. Praise God he’s dead. His son will pay us handsomely and protect us for all our days. God save the king!


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Synecdoche

Synecdoche (si-nek’-do-kee): A whole is represented by naming one of its parts (or genus named for species), or vice versa (or species named for genus).


I got a new set of wheels for my birthday, man. I am so spoiled I could wing the rest of my life and nobody would care. My parents papered my bank account when I was ten, when they opened it. Knee deep in cabbage, everybody wants a piece of me—from soul men to hit men, everybody wants to rap with Johnnie. My cell goes off all day long while I sit in my room and fantasize about the future. My atomic tick tock tells me time is on my side.

Maybe it’s time to start to get my future started. I can be whatever I want to be as long as it doesn’t involve anything intellectual or hard, and especially, no technical knowledge—that’s for total nerds. Ooh—I could be a rock star! I can buy a backup-band. I could be the next Barry Manilow! How about these lyrics?

I like peanut butter

I like operating a crane

I read the obituaries

Just to look for your name

I can hear it on the satellite already. Fame. Concerts. Adoring fans. I’ll have a set of strings that I’ll buy from some rock star from the sixties who’s still alive. Maybe Eric Clap-on (or is it Clap-off?). Ha ha! How about Jimmy Buffett? I’ll have him eating out of my hand. Ha ha! I’ll have a little crank music box installed in my guitar that I can turn and make it sound like it’s playing. It will look sooooo cool.

Whoops, time to go to the Moon Drift casino for free lunch and craps! I never win, but they love me anyway.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Synthesis

Synthesis (sin’-the-sis): An apt arrangement of a composition, especially regarding the sounds of adjoining syllables and words.


I was surrounded by artichokes, following the slowpokes seeking the Great Artichoke. It was no joke, these oldsters believed they could retrieve their youth—their hair, their waistlines, their butts, and more—by drinking the artichoke’s juice. They all certainly did need some physical restoration, but the notion of a giant therapeutic artichoke somewhere in the fields of Castroville was, to put it mildly, crazy.

They’d heard about Giant Artichokes on one of those alt-right podcasts, where they also learned that Joe Biden is a robot controlled by a Chinese restaurant owner working for the Chinese communist government. Accordingly, we should listen to nothing Biden says, or we will be “communified” and become “brain slaves” of the Chinese government. The show’s host, Rev. Sky Goshawk, sells a number of snake oils: Sin-Free Pork Rinds, Fudge Blessings, Exploding Satan Chasers, and more. The podcast is called “Poisoned Minds,” and it does just that.

My job at the nursing home is to take 4 to 6 people on day trips once-a-week. That’s how I ended up in the artichoke field, wondering what the foray would yield. Probably a chorus of complaining oldsters badmouthing Rev. Goshawk. Then, Mr. Blanko, a decrepit mess of a man, yelled “There it is.!” And there it was: a ten-foot high artichoke. They all had aluminum straws they had purchased from “Poisoned Minds.” They jammed them into the giant artichoke and started sucking away. Old Mrs. Phipps was the first to show effects. She patted her butt and said softly, “What do you think of this?” She went from 80 to 30 in a flash. She was beautiful, with the benefit of her age and experience, she was perfect. All my charges were now in their thirties. I couldn’t wait to show the giant artichoke to the world—what an amazing “cure” to the aging process, plus, I had fallen in love with Mrs. Phipps.

We got back to the home around eight. Everybody was shocked when they saw my passengers. They all wanted to go to the fields, but we talked them down and promised that we would all go tomorrow.

Mrs. Phipps and I slept together that night. When I woke up the next morning, there was an naked old woman lying next to me. It was Old Mrs. Phipps. I shrieked and jumped out of bed. She sat up and said “Oh dear, I must drink more giant artichoke juice.” We got in my car and drove to the artichoke fields. We looked, and looked, and looked but we couldn’t find the giant artichoke.

I was heartbroken, disgusted and confused. When we returned to the home, I sprinted up the stairs, packed and ran back down to my car. The group I’d taken to the fields came running out of the home yelling “Take us back!” They got to my car and started rocking it back and forth. I slammed it in gear, floored it, and took off in a cloud of dust.

“Are you ok?” I asked. Mrs. Phipps answered “Yes” from the floor behind my seat.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99.

A video reading is on YouTube: Johnnie Anaphora

Syntheton

Syntheton (sin’-the-ton): When by convention two words are joined by a conjunction for emphasis.


Up and down. Off and on. Good and evil. Permanence and change. These dialectically situated markers denote the imbalanced trajectories of our lives. We wander back and forth along the limits of their otherness. Sometime for desired purposes. Sometimes by accident. Sometimes by necessity. Psychically, we may fluctuate between up and down, possibly taking medication to pin us to the middle (wherever that is). Physically, the fluctuation may depend on the terrain, as we climb and descend, take off and land.

Off and on: flip the switch due to a desire for light; off the platform, onto the train; off the record, on the record, off the deep end. The tensions involve timing and anxieties over disclosures and unwarranted excesses. Maybe I’m just off my rocker.

Good and evil: Ha ha! Can we get beyond them like Nietzsche asks? That’s all I have to say here, except all they have as markers of these two extremes are paradigm cases, particular instances bearing the weight of their idea as in Nazis and Jesus.

Permanence and change: things are permanently changing. That’s everything, but in infinite ways. The worship of permanence is the greatest and most destructive activity that humans may perform. It leads to apathy, slavery, and an obsession with worship and its means. It marginalizes coping as a fundamental life skill and subordinates everything to rites and rituals as displays of truth’s penetration into suppliants’ forged souls. Change is the harbinger of creativity and the foundation of one’s humanity, allowing for, and tolerating, the cacophony of human existence—the uniqueness of each of us circumscribed by similar exigences—the common experience, the disparate responses that need to be bridged to work collectively— to accomplish the greatest things; the things we cannot do alone: this is persuasion’s work: to build bridges connecting hope and fear, perpetuating persuasion in a spirit of love, the only thing worth retrieving from Permanence’s graveyard and resuscitating in service of persuasion: love.

Listen to public speech. If it lacks a loving tenor you must reject it, but first, you must learn what love is. I think the Apostle Paul can help, in 1 Corinthians 13.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Synzeugma

Synzeugma (sin-zoog’-ma): That kind of zeugma in which a verb joins (and governs) two phrases by coming between them. A synonym for mesozeugma.


The taut rope dangled into the cold and unknown darkness. I was prepared to ride my McGuire Rig into the nothingness of the long-abandoned mineshaft. Unlike most mineshafts I’ve encountered, this one went almost strait down. It would be particularly difficult to get back out, but I was prepared with a device that would lift me out with its electric motor. My headlamp barely pierced the black density that lay below. It was rumored by the locals that there was “something” at the shaft’s end. Nobody was willing to venture a guess as to what it was. When I asked, they shook their heads and turned away.

I was going down. It got warmer and warmer. Down, down, down I went. Suddenly, I heard a woman softly singing “Paddy’s Lamentation,” a song I learned as a little boy at my mother’s knee. The hair on the back of my neck bristled. I was terrified. When I reached bottom, terror and amazement struck my entire being. There, chained to the wall was the most beautiful woman I have ever seen—clean and wearing perfume that made me giddy and drew me toward her. There was a key to her chains on the ground in front of her. “Please unlock my iron fetters you comely lad and we can return together to the sunlit lands. I will serve you, have your children, and give all the worldly pleasures you may imagine.” As I bent to pick up the key, my headlamp caught the visage of a glaring human skull. I stood and looked more carefully. There was a pile of dismembered bones, with marks from being gnawed. I didn’t understand. I couldn’t understand with my mind fogged by the perfume. Like a fool, I turned her loose. She came rushing toward me and embraced me softly. “Up we go my lovely man,” she said looking me directly in the eyes. I hooked us up to the rig, facing each other and pressed the green button that would prompt the electric motor to raise us to the surface. As we neared the surface, she held me tighter, crying softly in my ear. As we emerged she let go, pushed away and tumbled screaming back into the mineshaft.

I immediately pressed the “down” button on the McGuire Rig to find out what had happened to her. When I reached to bottom of the mineshaft, there she was, a bloody heap on the floor. Dead. It was time to get the hell out of there. As I was ascending, I heard a woman’s voice softly singing “Paddy’s Lamentation.” Given all the craziness, I thought I was imagining it, but now, I’m not too sure. I’m going back in spring. Rationality be damned. I love her.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Systrophe

Systrophe (si’-stro-fee): The listing of many qualities or descriptions of someone or something, without providing an explicit definition.


Lush. Warm. Another day, like nearly every day. Hopeful. Optimistic. Smiling. Driving to work. Bobbing through traffic. Here we are! “National Figments.” I’ve been working here for 51 years! I started when I was 11 with a fake I.D. my Uncle “Bingo” gave me as a gift when I dropped out of school in the 5th grade. I’ve won employee of the month 140 times. I’ve lost track of the different kinds of items I’ve helped make on the assembly line, but my favorites are made under contract to the U.S. Government. I’ve worked on useful things. Under the Trump administration we made sturdy and escape proof child-size cages, tasers disguised as cellphones, and “Fake News” generators. Under Bush, we made a line of one million ceramic cups that said “Mission Accomplished.” I think the best thing we made (and it was for Trump) was the “Sloganator.” It generates slogans that can be repeated until they sound like common sense. I was real proud of “Stop the Steal” and “Lock her up.” The craziest thing I ever helped to make was the Puppettron. I’m not sure how it works, but I do know it is some kind of implant that makes a person say whatever the controller wants them to say, and once they’ve said it, they believe it no matter how crazy or untrue it is. It is rumored that most Republican Representatives and Senators, ultra right wingers, and their news outlets have been fitted with Puppettrons. We’re all wondering who is doing the talking. The Puppettron’s sponsor was deeply concealed, but it seems to be used to advanced Republican interests. It’s easy to see as far as they consistently make bizarre claims and tell lies with conviction about things that are transparently untrue. Right now we’re working on the Democratorater, a device that jams the Puppettron’s encrypted signal and restores peoples’ freedom of speech and thought. This is typical of government work: make it and then break it.

I’m retiring next week. My boss told me I’ve been here too long and know too much. As he said that, he hit the palm of his hand with his fist. I told him I’d be gone by Friday. He said “good” and turned and walked away. As he walked away, I noticed he had a small incision on the back of his neck that had recently scabbed over.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99.

A video reading of this trope is on YouTube at the Johnnie Anaphora channel.

Tapinosis

Tapinosis (ta-pi-no’-sis): Giving a name to something which diminishes it in importance.


Operative: My name is Nello. I’m glad to see you can afford a Rolls Roach: the automobile of the aristocracy—the automobile of the oppressor. You should know better than to stop for a saw horse with a blinking yellow light. And driving alone too—tsk tsk. Get out of the car, or should I say scar? Pants down! Hands up! I’ll just fish your wallet out of your jacket pocket while you tremble and think about your immediate future. Ok, what’s your phone’s passcode—don’t make me smash your skull with this tire iron. Ok. What’s your bank account’s pin? You’re going to give me a grant to save the world from people like you. Ok, I bet you even know your swift code Mr. International Business Man. Time to empty your account into mine. Ahhh. Nice. Now, take off your pants. We’re going to soak them in gasoline and use them to torch the 4-wheeled obscenity you’re driving. Normally, we’d take your shoes too, but it’s supposed to rain & we don’t want you getting your feet wet. He ha! Do you have anything to say?

Victim: Yes indeed! I obtained this car about an hour ago from the headquarters of Pompelmous Corporation, makers of edible listening devices disguised as grapefruits. I have disguised myself as Pompelmous’s CEO and am on my way to sabotage a secret meeting in New Vernon to discuss expanding their line of devices to English muffins and Taylor Ham. I will kill all the attendees. I am unafraid to sacrifice my life to protect my privacy and save us all from government snooping into every facet of our lives.

Operative: My God! That’s beautiful! Pull up your pants and be on your way!

Victim: (on cellphone). Hello, police? There’s a gang of revolutionaries on RTE. 12 right outside Green Village with a fake roadblock. They are flagging down luxury automobiles, in the name of some kind of political movement, and taking the occupants’ money. Oh, you’ve already gotten a number of other calls? Why are they still there? Under surveillance? Is this Nello? Nello?

Operative: Yes. It’s me and I’m in the back seat with a Glock aimed at your head. Turn this shit barge around. We’re headed for the Great Swamp. I’ll be driving alone to the chop shop and you’ll be face-down in the mud. Don’t try any funny business or our little ride will abruptly end.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99.

Tasis

Tasis (ta’-sis): Sustaining the pronunciation of a word or phrase because of its pleasant sound. A figure apparent in delivery.


HER: Ohhh myyyy looooord! It’s you! It’s really you! How did you find us? Where have you been? We’ve moved three times since you went away. You never emailed. You never texted. You never tried to call. It’s not like we missed you that much, but your disappearance kept us in suspense. Little Timmy, who was six at the time, was hoping you were dead. You’ll have to ask him why. Although we wondered where you had gone we were mostly glad you were gone. Now, I suppose you want money, or need a place to hide from the police, or some other weirder thing.

HIM: Hey baby! Yeah, it’s me, Tony Trick. Remember how you used to call me Tony Baloney and I called you Hairy Mary? Well, those days are over—now you can call me Tony T-Bone! Given that you’re pointing a .45 at me, maybe I should call you Scary Mary. What the hell did I ever do to deserve a bullet in the brain? I left, that’s it.

HER: That’s enough dipshit. Not a word for 10 years! Timmy’s 16 and he doesn’t know you from Joe Bozo. We barely make ends meet. Timmy has a part-time job at the bakery where steals donuts and crumbcakes to help with food. I’ve been wearing these jeans for 7 years, and this blouse is 5 years old. Give me a break, shithead! Where have you been?

HIM: I can’t say where I’ve been, but I can tell you where I am. I have six female employees who need a place to entertain clients in the evening. I was wondering if . . .

BLAM!

HIM: Jeez—that’s my foot you crazy bitch—you shot it—you shot me in the foot! I’m bleeding all over the place! Dammit!

HER: That’s right scum face. It’s just what you needed. Timmy will cover your foot with a garbage bag and help you to your car. Just get out of here. One of your whores can clean you up and get you to an emergency room. If you tell anybody about this—about what I’ve done—be prepared to lose your balls. Also, rat me out and I’ll tell the police about your “disposal” business from back in the day. How many was it? Nine? Timmy, go ahead and help your dickweed father hobble out the door. Don’t let him fall down. He might hurt himself. Ha ha.

TIMMY: He’s gone Ma. But somehow he “fell” down the porch steps and hurt his knee pretty bad.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Thaumasmus

Thaumasmus (thau-mas’-mus): To marvel at something rather than to state it in a matter of fact way.


I wanted new footwear—shoes, boots, flip flops, trainers—I didn’t care. I just wanted something new for my feet. My friend told me about an internet-based shoe store called “Atlas Sole Man.” Eddie said you could put in any search terms and you’d get a footwear surprise. I thought Eddie was full of crap. I asked how he found out about it and he said, “Family secret.” I thought to myself that it was odd—usually, ‘family secret’ is reserved for a special recipe or an illegitimate child being raised by the mother’s mother—the grandmother.

So, I booted up my laptop, logged onto the internet and Googled Atlas Sole Man. Nothing came up. I texted Eddie: “You’re full of shit. Soul man does not exist.” Eddie texted me back: “Sorry. Try ‘Sole Mann.’ Atlas uses two n’s on the internet. I Googled again and found the site. The opening page was a red slide. The slide said, “If you were sent by Eddie, click here. If Eddie did not send you, do not enter or your computer will be destroyed by the most virulent malware in your universe.

I was filled with wonder—all for some new footwear! Well, there I was. Just to see what I’d get I put “Pizza” in the search box. Immediately a digital voice said “Place your bare feet on your computer screen within the next 20 seconds.” I had to hurry. I pulled off my shoes and socks put my bare feet on the screen as instructed. When I pulled my feet back, I was wearing the coolest looking pepperoni and onion pizza sandals. They were made of Vibram. The topping faced the ground and worked as treads. The smooth side of the pizza was flat against the bottom of my foot. It was amazing. In fact, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life!

When I tried to go back on the site, it had disappeared. I asked Eddie what it was all about. He said, “It’s a family secret. Have you ever heard the tale of the elves and the shoemaker? My ancestors came from Germany and we’ve been working with magical elves for centuries, ever since my great-great-great-great grandfather, a shoemaker, saved some elves’ lives by making them warm clothes in the bitter winter.”

I believed every word Eddie said, but nobody else did. As soon as I told Eddie’s story to somebody else, my pizza shoes disappeared. People mocked me and Eddie said I was a liar.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

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Tmesis

Tmesis (tmee’-sis): Interjecting a word or phrase between parts of a compound word or between syllables of a word.


I’m from New-friggin-Jersey— and Bruce and Frank and Thomas light bulb Edison too. I was the back-flash-lash: if you didn’t respect me, bang on your head. Growing up, the first word I learned was “con.” The first words of wisdom I learned were from the tattoo-covered guy down the street: “If you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime.”

OK—I’m kidding. I did grow up in New Jersey, and it was great, sure, there was a bit of crime here and there, but there was so much more. What about the shore? Seaside Heights—the boardwalk and the beach, the rickety rides like the Wild Mouse and the Tilt-A-Whirl. The Wild Mouse was the scariest ride I ever went on—it made you feel like you were going to derail—it had runners under the tracks to hold it on the tracks, but every once in awhile they’d break and the mouse-car would fly into the Atlantic Ocean. Nobody was ever killed as far as I can remember. When my daughter was around 8 they had a version of the Wild Mouse at the New York State Fair. She begged to go on it. I capitulated after telling her ten or fifteen times the ride was the scariest ever. We took the ride. We got off and my daughter couldn’t talk for ten minutes.

The Tilt-A-Whirl is a big circular thing with a wall, like a big jar lid. Everybody gets strapped to the wall. It starts rotating, faster and faster until there’s enough centrifugal force to tilt it to a ninety-degree angle to the ground. My most memorable experience on the Tilt-A-Whirl was getting hit in the face by a shoe that had flown off the person across from me. Luckily, it wasn’t boot.

Anyway, growing up in New Jersey was great. I even went through Army basic training there; at Ft. Dix during the Vietnam War. I had my first legal drink at Ft. Dix—watered down beer. No matter how much I drank, I couldn’t get drunk. I missed the liquor store back home where they never checked ID. Missing a “liberal” liquor store is a Jersey Boy’s version of homesickness. So to help me and my fellow trainees cope, I set up a little import business. I had a “friend” in New Egypt, about 5 miles from the Fort. But hey, that’s another story.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu).

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Topographia

Topographia (top-o-graf’-i-a): Description of a place. A kind of enargia [: {en-ar’-gi-a} generic name for a group of figures aiming at vivid, lively description].


It wasn’t far. It wasn’t near. It was nowhere. The great absence. It’s where he exists. Tubes. Respirators. Eyes closed. Comatose. The hospital room is brightly lit day and night—like a greenhouse growing flowers or tomatoes. The bed is high off the floor. With the push of a button you can raise and lower the head-end like an expensive media room settee. But, there’s no television, no radio, no connection to the outside world, and why should there be? The man in the bed is in another world. He hasn’t opened his eyes or shown any interest in anything since he was wheeled in two weeks ago.

The floors are so clean and shiny you can see up your pant leg when you look down. The tiles are brown and yellow—earthy, solid, pastoral even. When you look out the window you see a sprawling parking lot and the Jersey City skyline—it’s early evening so the office buildings are twinkling and bits of New York City are peeking through the gaps in Jersey City’s spacious architectural sprawl.

There are flowers delivered fresh every day with a note attached: “Love, Susie.” He has his own personal woolen blanket with a giant red letter “B” woven into it. His name is Franky Silt. What’s the “B” stand for, everybody asks? Bastard? Boyfriend? Bankrupt? What?

There is one chair by the bed telling you “One visitor at a time.” Beige metal with a fake black leather seat, worn by years of vigils held over the dying and the healing, and those like him, in neither neither land: alive and dead, binding and void, null and valid.

Time for bed, which is ironic since just about everybody’s been in bed all day. Soft and soothing music starts to play over the hospital’s PA system. It’s a richly layered instrumental version of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Somebody has a sense of humor. I touch Franky on the forehead. His life-sign monitors beep wildly and a alarm goes off. I look up, take a breath, and disappear. Franky is dead.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu). Bracketed text added by Gorgias.

Buy a print edition of The Daily Trope! The print edition is entitled The Book of Tropes and is available on Amazon for $9.99.

A video reading of this figure is on YouTube: Johnnie Anaphora