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.