A Day Like Today

There are no words to describe what happened a year ago today. My husband found his own papa dead. Suicide to some is a terrible evil, however this was different. For those of you who know someone who suffers, although it may not show, please, I beg of you, be a friend. All I know is that we have been enormously blessed. God bless you dear Keven.

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.

-T. Roethke