Three-Year-Old with Dad

[Emz]

I'm not sure if my understanding of this poem is what was meant, but I'd like to share what I got from it. To me it seems like "below" and "under" are the emotions, personalities, and memories that other people hold. The child is wondering who they are. The father is abusing the child and his "pants" that the father said he must always wear before going outside..in public, are what covers him like a facade. I feel like "pants" are a metaphor for his happy face he puts on for other people so they don't see the pain inside him caused by the father. He must always wear them in front of others. This might not be a metaphor and could be taken just as literally and still have the same affect. The dialect of the child makes the poem eerie because of how innocent and vulnerable he is. No one seems to be there to save him because his mask leads them to believe nothing is wrong. I may be completely wrong, but your poem was moving.

Dear Cadence,

Your response is very interesting. I read it a couple of times and interpreted it closer to what CRND had, but this reading totally explains why there is a shift from the child saying "Daddy" to "Dad"; the former before abuse and the latter when the kid grew up too soon...

Emma