diff --git a/src/include/override/sys/epoll.h b/src/include/override/sys/epoll.h
index 0ed9c27a4b..123283cf09 100644
--- a/src/include/override/sys/epoll.h
+++ b/src/include/override/sys/epoll.h
@@ -3,8 +3,11 @@
 
 #include_next <sys/epoll.h>     /* IWYU pragma: export */
 
-/* epoll_pwait2() was added to glibc 2.35. Redirect to a shim that sets errno=ENOSYS at runtime when
- * the libc symbol isn't available, so callers don't need to worry about the libc version. */
-int epoll_pwait2_shim(int fd, struct epoll_event *events, int maxevents,
-                      const struct timespec *timeout, const sigset_t *sigmask);
-#define epoll_pwait2 epoll_pwait2_shim
+/* epoll_pwait2() was added in glibc 2.35 and is currently unavailable in musl.
+ * Call the syscall directly instead of relying on the libc wrapper. */
+int missing_epoll_pwait2(
+                int fd,
+                struct epoll_event *events,
+                int maxevents,
+                const struct timespec *timeout,
+                const sigset_t *sigmask);
diff --git a/src/libc/epoll.c b/src/libc/epoll.c
index a7d4075f37..9bd16450c2 100644
--- a/src/libc/epoll.c
+++ b/src/libc/epoll.c
@@ -1,26 +1,35 @@
 /* SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later */
 
+#include <errno.h>              /* IWYU pragma: keep */
+#include <linux/time_types.h>
 #include <sys/epoll.h>
+#include <sys/syscall.h>
+#include <unistd.h>
 
-#include "libc-shim.h"
+int missing_epoll_pwait2(
+                int fd,
+                struct epoll_event *events,
+                int maxevents,
+                const struct timespec *timeout,
+                const sigset_t *sigmask) {
 
-/* On 32-bit architectures built with _TIME_BITS=64, glibc renames epoll_pwait2() to
- * __epoll_pwait2_time64 via __asm__() in <sys/epoll.h> so the linker picks the variant whose
- * struct timespec ABI matches our 64-bit time_t. dlsym() can't see that header-level rename, so
- * we have to spell out the right name here, otherwise we'd silently dispatch a 64-bit timespec to
- * the legacy 32-bit-time_t entry point. */
-#ifdef __USE_TIME_BITS64
-DEFINE_LIBC_ERRNO_SHIM_NAMED(epoll_pwait2, "__epoll_pwait2_time64", int,
-                             int, fd,
-                             struct epoll_event *, events,
-                             int, maxevents,
-                             const struct timespec *, timeout,
-                             const sigset_t *, sigmask)
-#else
-DEFINE_LIBC_ERRNO_SHIM(epoll_pwait2, int,
-                       int, fd,
-                       struct epoll_event *, events,
-                       int, maxevents,
-                       const struct timespec *, timeout,
-                       const sigset_t *, sigmask)
-#endif
+        /* We intentionally reject non-NULL sigmask to avoid depending on the architecture-specific kernel
+         * sigset_t size. If sigmask support is ever added, the correct sigsetsize must be passed to the
+         * syscall. */
+        if (sigmask) {
+                errno = EINVAL;
+                return -1;
+        }
+
+        /* Convert struct timespec to struct __kernel_timespec, as they may differ. */
+        struct __kernel_timespec t, *p = NULL;
+        if (timeout) {
+                t = (struct __kernel_timespec) {
+                        .tv_sec = timeout->tv_sec,
+                        .tv_nsec = timeout->tv_nsec,
+                };
+                p = &t;
+        }
+
+        return syscall(__NR_epoll_pwait2, fd, events, maxevents, p, /* sigmask= */ NULL, /* sigsetsize= */ 0);
+}
diff --git a/src/libsystemd/sd-event/sd-event.c b/src/libsystemd/sd-event/sd-event.c
index 590ac06b8e..dd293a89fd 100644
--- a/src/libsystemd/sd-event/sd-event.c
+++ b/src/libsystemd/sd-event/sd-event.c
@@ -4631,14 +4631,16 @@ static int epoll_wait_usec(
 
         static bool epoll_pwait2_absent = false;
         int r, msec;
-        /* A wrapper that uses epoll_pwait2() if available, and falls back to epoll_wait() if not. */
+
+        /* A wrapper that uses missing_epoll_pwait2(), which directly calls epoll_pwait2 syscall. */
 
         if (!epoll_pwait2_absent && timeout != USEC_INFINITY) {
-                r = epoll_pwait2(fd,
-                                 events,
-                                 maxevents,
-                                 TIMESPEC_STORE(timeout),
-                                 NULL);
+                r = missing_epoll_pwait2(
+                                fd,
+                                events,
+                                maxevents,
+                                TIMESPEC_STORE(timeout),
+                                /* sigmask= */ NULL);
                 if (r >= 0)
                         return r;
                 if (!ERRNO_IS_NOT_SUPPORTED(errno) && !ERRNO_IS_PRIVILEGE(errno))