Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Response to My Papa'sWaltz

My Papa's Waltz


The whiskey on your breath
Could make a small boy dizzy;
But I hung on like death:
Such waltzing was not easy.


We romped until the pans
Slid from the kitchen shelf;
My mother's countenance
Could not unfrown itself.


The hand that held my wrist
Was battered on one knuckle;
At every step you missed
My right ear scraped a buckle.


You beat time on my head
With a palm caked hard by dirt,
Then waltzed me off to bed
Still clinging to your shirt.


When i read this poem i thought that this poem was about a father abusing his son. When we talked about this poem in class a one or two kids thought that this poem was about a father and son playing around. But i don't believe that. I think that this poem is about abuse. For example, when the poet says The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knuckle; i think that means that the father was beating his son on the hand. which means that his father was abusing him.

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