My Papa's Waltz

Today would be my dad's 91st birthday, if he were alive. Sadly, he passed away just before his 88th birthday. Today I saw this poem by Theodore Roethke and it made me smile and reminisce of so many times with my dad, I just had to post it. I hope it causes you to pause as well and have fond rembrances of your own Daddy and times you had with him. -- Susan

My Papa's Waltz
by Theodore Roethke

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.
# # #

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