March: Year-day 73

         
                                               
                                           
March: Year-day 73

Today the power men woke up to leave
and, sister, brother, the old airs relaxed
in this hard-pressed inn; for few of us grieve
when warm lights rescind what has overtaxed
as the ice of double-shifting had done;
so we and the linemen, not being sure
we'd last another day--despite the fun
easing it, though forced to--welcomed the cure.

Enough is enough, as you sometimes hear,
and we all concurred; and so the men went
rolling home from their interrupted year,
the long hours gone; and the rest of us bent
toward cleaning up.  The torn trees wept.  While near,
sad, not two weeks lived, one flagellant Lent.

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