Hard Used, Missoula, Montana

“…They blend along small-town streets
Like a race of giants that have faded into mere mythology.
Our eyes, washed clean of belief,
Lift incredulous to their fearsome crowns of bolts, trusses, 

struts, nuts, insulators, and such
Barnacles as compose
These weathered encrustations of electrical debris…”

From "Telephone Poles" 
by John Updike

(Click on the author's name, above, to read an insightful article on Updike's mother, also a writer.)