Dismissed On A Missed Hello

He didn’t know he was a chauvinist,
he couldn’t yet because his focus was
intent on killing dragons. She had said it

meant a lack of common manners, arrested
childhood development, no social conscience.
My God, I thought, and marvelled how she

knew all that. Thinking back his greeting may
have had no substance, a glance, half a nod
perhaps. You’d see it as perfunctory, but she

intuitively knew it was a chauvinist at work,
and that was that. Well, I’d best ensure my future
greetings are effusive to avoid her ire, she bears

her grudges long and fiery hot; not that I’m a
hearthside husband whipped nor chastened, but
woe to be summarily dismissed on a missed hello…!
© I.D. Carswell