how many cars have I owned,
an American male, yet I always
seem to travel by thumb,
hitching my way from A to B
or unwittingly to C
with another at the wheel
when will I be driving
making my own signaled turns
pressing the pedal to the floor
or screeching to a stop
in the middle
of a frantic freeway
rush hour, just to see
if anybody knows I am there
when they hear
the crushing crash
I have not traveled by thumb in 42 years--still, I feel someone else has their foot on the gas, their hands on the wheel