In his work Drifters, Dawe takes the reader through a range of emotions, from sadness to wild excitement and anxious anticipation to quiet resignation. We begin the journey with the protagonist as she senses the impending close of the family's time in their current home and the mixed emotions that leaving for the unknown will trigger. She knows that for some there will be tears, for others joy and for herself, a resigned acceptance. Dawe creates a feeling of inevitability about the scene before the reader, and the poem's title confirms this is not the first, or most likely the last time that the protagonist will feel this way. He writes, "she won't even ask why they're leaving this time, or where they're heading for." Yet, there are happy reflections