diff --git a/src/pkg/runtime/netpoll.goc b/src/pkg/runtime/netpoll.goc
index 0ab75cf0da..59420f781f 100644
--- a/src/pkg/runtime/netpoll.goc
+++ b/src/pkg/runtime/netpoll.goc
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ allocPollDesc(void)
 			n = 1;
 		// Must be in non-GC memory because can be referenced
 		// only from epoll/kqueue internals.
-		pd = runtime·SysAlloc(n*sizeof(*pd));
+		pd = runtime·persistentalloc(n*sizeof(*pd), 0);
 		for(i = 0; i < n; i++) {
 			pd[i].link = pollcache.first;
 			pollcache.first = &pd[i];