Seasoned Hitchhiker

He bent his head away as the juggernaut rolled past,
spraying a red sea of water from the gutter
and soaking his fleece jacket and chilling him to the bone.
Lifts were getting harder to come by these days
ever since the Eighties when the Yorkshire Ripper
prowled the M1 and people became afraid to stop
and let an old man have a ride.
There were still a few – students mostly, eager to test
the urban legend about axemen on the roads –
who'd still offer a lift and he was grateful for it.
The bravado of two men was entertaining still
and he could keep them alive and begging for hours.