This poem was wrote by a lady - Bernice Skretka |(deceased) - who's niece, Mary-Anne McNeney, shared it with us. Her aunt was from the Piapot/MapleCreek area and so, with thanks, I reproduce it here for all my fellow linemen.
The Man On The Pole
The black blowing night and the driving snow
made it feel much colder than 30 below.
The wind rasps the snow like sharp cutting sand;
strokes bare frozen trees with a harsh icy hand.
Stiff branches creak with the weight of the wind
which has sung it's chill dirge for hours on end.
No pinpricks of light pricks the gloom of the street.
The dark is forever, frozen, complete.
By the curb stands a truck, it's tail to the storm.
Around it, grey drifts have started to form.
Dimly discerned are the lines of it's back,
the tools on it's side,the high ladder rack.
Like a pack horse it stands, hock deep in the snow
as patiently waiting, with head hanging low.
Alone with the wind and the swirling dark,
dim flashes repeating their faint red spark.
Alone on a pole in the wintery night sky
a snow blurred figure works on high,
clings to his poerch with sharp pointed steel,
arches his back to the safety strap feel;
Desperately twists the stiff stubbon wires
his mind running home to warm glowing fires.
He pulls with numbed hands. his face a chill mask,
with fast-ebbing strength, completes his lone task.
Now light splays from windows, all down the street
a radio blares then becomes more discreet.
Somewhere a dog barks his plea at a door;
light and life have come back to the street once more.
The man on the pole draws a long, tired sigh
then picks his way slowly down out of the sky.
The cold hours of labour have taken their toll;
he leans for a moment against the hard pole.
To the truck he ploddingly makes his way,
stows his tools in the back, and drives away.
Not a soul in those houses - now bright and warm
knows that he's been there, out in the storm.
Silently working to bring them light
and as silently fading into the night.
When workaday heroes are inscribed on the roll
we too often forget the Man on the Pole.
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