"The Hitchhikers" by: Diane Wakoski

The Hitchhikers I feel is Wakoski's way of finding what she lost. Reaching a goal which I believe may be a lost lover. She states that " it is the look each one gives me of need, desperate need, pick me up, or Ill fail to reach my goal, and that need frightens me." Everyone is on a path in life both literally and figuratively. People are always trying to get somewhere, reach some unseen goal and hitchhiking is the most obvious of visuals to define this. Why else would a hitchhiker do what they do if not for a desperate need to get elsewhere? Wakoski herself seems to be on a journey to reclaim herself, find what she lost or learn to live without it. I feel it is a lover because she states " looking for your face in each car I pass, or which passes me, knowing you would not hitchhike, either, thinking of the two years I spent with you, reliving them over and over, knowing I had everything I wanted". It was a love lost. Now they are both going their own separate ways and like all she needs to to recover, "think" as she states and recollect herself. Like all others out there she is on a new path. Trying to reach a new goal and letting go of the one she left behind.