Angels on the Wing
© Lannie Dietle 2025
I worked as a pump jockey back when I was just a kid,
And fueling up them dump trucks was something that I did.
When they stopped at the pump, the drivers raised the beds up high
So I could pass the hose under, n' fill the tank on the other side.
One day I leaned under a bed to pull the hose back through.
I gave it not a thought, it was just a thing I'd been taught to do.
That was how things had been done there for oh so many years,
It was just our usual thing: It wasn't nothing that I feared.
I don't know if angels watchin' over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.
I was stretched out under that big ole dump truck bed
When a strange voice spoke to me, right inside my head.
Look up Lannie, it said, or maybe Lannie look out.
I didn't wait around to see what that voice was all about!
I sprang back just like a spring, and it wasn't none soon
Because as soon as I pulled clear, I heard a big ba-boom!
The bed falling on the frame had made that awful sound,
If I hadn't jerked backwards, I wouldn't be around.
I don't know if angels watching over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.
The diesel fuel nozzle was smashed flat by the falling bed,
And if not for the little voice, that'd be me instead.
I wondered who had saved my life, and I searched all around.
But I was completely by myself – no other soul to be found.
The truck driver was a stranger, and my name he did not know.
He was in the men's room when I dodged that deadly blow.
Now, you may not believe in angels, but I'm sure of one thing:
That voice inside my head didn't come from any human being.
If not for that voice, I'd a been crushed to death that day,
And how I jumped back in time, I just cain't explain away.
I don't know if angels watching over trucks is a normal thing,
But when I see them rolling by, I think of angels on the wing.
Oh, when I see them rolling by, I see an angel on the wing.
This event happened a lifetime ago, and I no longer remember whether the voice said "look up" or "look out," but it was one of those two, combined with my first name.
L. Dietle
