PAD Day 10: Down in the Hole

Today's dual prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) write a "lone" or "lonely" poem, and (2) write a poem inspired by a colorful regional phrase describing the weather. I'm not sure how regional the phrase is that was the basis of my poem, but it's certainly one of the most colorful ones I've heard to describe the weather. The popular Philly TV weatherman who used it, Jim O'Brien, was known for his sense of humor and his somewhat wacky style. Sadly, he died in a skydiving accident in 1983.. (Interesting bit of trivia: His daughter is actress Peri Gilpin, who played Roz Doyle on Frasier.) For the "lone" theme, I focused a little on the loneliness and claustrophobia of a guy going down a deep, dark hole.

Colder than a Well-digger's Elbow

I first heard the phrase from a TV weatherman

who couldn't use a more profane body part

on the air. But I like it better anyway -

"elbow" with "well-digger"

sounds more assonant than "ass".

Anyone who knows their ass from their elbow

knows it gets colder as you dig underground,

and before modern technology,

when we needed wells in almost every home,

there'd be a guy whose job it was to lower himself

into the dark depths of a hole,

sometimes dozens of feet deep,

to dig and scrape down until he hit a spring

that percolated up through the muck and clay.

It was a relief when the guys on the ground

hauled him out on a rope, because it was lonely

and claustrophobic down there, cold and clammy.

However, it wasn't quite freezing.

So when the weatherman used that saying

to describe icy conditions, he wasn't quite accurate.

But I still bundled up that day, because I didn't want

to be colder than a well-digger's elbow, or ass,

or any other part of him.