Rimbaud

After a passable meal while nursing coffee cups; amid the detritus of the evening, the conversation took an unexpected turn; as I was telling her of my love for poetry and in particular the work of Pam Ayers, she suddenly interjected that for her no-one dead or alive could possibly approach Rambo in terms of sensitivity, poignancy and sheer joy in the possibilities of his language. Though initially caught unawares I quickly recovered and agreed that in my opinion few films had approached the textual minimalism and bleak social commentary of First Blood, in addition i remarked that: “at one point he actually punches a mans head off!” On hearing this her nose twitched and her brow furrowed as the brandy we were drinking flushed her cheeks crimson, making her instantly and to an alarming degree less attractive. Emboldened by her libatory degradation I continued: outlining the plot of the yet to be released forth installment of the trilogy and regaling her with a series of astonishing anecdotes concerning both the weaponry and tactics employed by the US Special Forces (an area of particular interest to me, having as I do a large collection of militaria, including a pair of socks worn at my lai or mylae!). It became apparent (as I propounded my particularly incisive and it must be said dense theory as to the actual tactical efficacy of the exploding arrows used in the second film) that in a bid to impress me this girl had raised a subject of which she had little or no understanding, as I continued she appeared completely out of her depth: visibly confused, her eyes intermittently flitted around the room as if to establish whether other diners were party to our conversation and if so were aware of her blunder. Consistent in my chivalry, I moved to a more general discussion of war and guns, but in doing so I only further exposed the ‘poor thing’s’ woeful lack of knowledge, laying bare the pathetic nature of her conceit in masquerading as my intellectual equal, and in doing so undermining any respect I may have held for her. She had by this stage become positively hysterical in her embarrassment; giggling uncontrollably into her napkin tears streaming down her cheeks as she repeatedly apologised for her behavior. I gallantly accepted her flimsy pretext and called the evening to a close, allowing her some small dignity at least; though as she left it was obvious that the sad creature was in considerable distress as she abandoned the table and ran from the restaurant.