HITCH

the driver makes brief eye contact
but the blue blur whizzes past all the same
i'm already scanning the road for the next vehicle
when suddenly i realise the blue blur has pulled up for me
i scamper along the road after him
afraid he'll change his mind
'where're you heading, mate?'
people who pick up hitchhikers
tend to be a bit different from the crowd
confident
self-assured
usually male
though not always
often surprisingly taciturn
though occasionally gregarious and chatty
i've started playing this little game
just for fun
supplying sometimes outrageous spontaneous fibs
to drivers' eager questions
seeing if i can keep up the facade
after all, why restrict yourself to the truth
when fantasy is so much more interesting?
d1: are you married?
h: er...actually i'm gay!
d1: oh i'm terribly sorry!
d2: so how did you meet your wife?
h: on the london underground
she was struggling with a heavy suitcase
at the bottom of a flight of steps
and i offered to carry it up to the top for her
d2:how gallant!
d3: any children?
h: twins
well, triplets, actually
but one of them died in childbirth...
d3: oh...erm...i didn't mean to pry!
i've only been rumbled the once
by an astute guy who baulked at the suggestion
that i might be a tv weatherman
my thin awareness of all things meteorogical
lay cruelly exposed
so it was that i was rumbled
by this travelling sales rep
who clearly knew far more
about the subject of climate and weather
than this supposed meteorology graduate ever did!
yours
fibseed