I still remember back when We were all leggy bones Back when I thought i knew What it meant to love Back before the slow pain Of forgetting it all. We were all Sharp angles and Elbows sticking out With words that came Hard and fast Back when I knew How to live How to love...

The father and son in the poem "My Papa's Waltz" by Theodore Roethke have a complex relationship mixed with fear, joy, and love. The boy says that he "hung on like death" when his father was dancing. This implies a sense of fear between the boy, because he does not quite trust his father to ca...