diff --git a/graph/src/components/store/traits.rs b/graph/src/components/store/traits.rs
index 158e75aa87d..1749b8bea09 100644
--- a/graph/src/components/store/traits.rs
+++ b/graph/src/components/store/traits.rs
@@ -130,7 +130,12 @@ pub trait SubgraphStore: Send + Sync + 'static {
     /// Return a `WritableStore` that is used for indexing subgraphs. Only
     /// code that is part of indexing a subgraph should ever use this. The
     /// `logger` will be used to log important messages related to the
-    /// subgraph
+    /// subgraph.
+    ///
+    /// This function should only be called in situations where no
+    /// assumptions about the in-memory state of writing has been made; in
+    /// particular, no assumptions about whether previous writes have
+    /// actually been committed or not.
     async fn writable(
         self: Arc<Self>,
         logger: Logger,
diff --git a/store/postgres/src/subgraph_store.rs b/store/postgres/src/subgraph_store.rs
index 19bc747f298..1c883579879 100644
--- a/store/postgres/src/subgraph_store.rs
+++ b/store/postgres/src/subgraph_store.rs
@@ -1232,7 +1232,12 @@ impl SubgraphStoreTrait for SubgraphStore {
         // idempotent and there is ever only one `WritableStore` for any
         // deployment
         if let Some(writable) = self.writables.lock().unwrap().get(&deployment) {
-            return Ok(writable.cheap_clone());
+            // A poisoned writable will not write anything anymore; we
+            // discard it and create a new one that is properly initialized
+            // according to the state in the database.
+            if !writable.poisoned() {
+                return Ok(writable.cheap_clone());
+            }
         }
 
         // Ideally the lower level functions would be asyncified.
diff --git a/store/postgres/src/writable.rs b/store/postgres/src/writable.rs
index 800a0ced080..417fe368428 100644
--- a/store/postgres/src/writable.rs
+++ b/store/postgres/src/writable.rs
@@ -791,6 +791,10 @@ impl Queue {
 
         Ok(dds)
     }
+
+    fn poisoned(&self) -> bool {
+        self.poisoned.load(Ordering::SeqCst)
+    }
 }
 
 /// A shim to allow bypassing any pipelined store handling if need be
@@ -908,6 +912,13 @@ impl Writer {
             Writer::Async(queue) => queue.load_dynamic_data_sources(manifest_idx_and_name).await,
         }
     }
+
+    fn poisoned(&self) -> bool {
+        match self {
+            Writer::Sync(_) => false,
+            Writer::Async(queue) => queue.poisoned(),
+        }
+    }
 }
 
 pub struct WritableStore {
@@ -941,6 +952,10 @@ impl WritableStore {
             writer,
         })
     }
+
+    pub(crate) fn poisoned(&self) -> bool {
+        self.writer.poisoned()
+    }
 }
 
 impl ReadStore for WritableStore {