Poetry response to "My father's loveletters"

ANESHA PORTER-GRIFFIN

 In the poem "My Father's Loveletters " by Yusef  Komunyakaa, the author really reaches me on a personal level. The poem is about having parents in an abusive relationship and being there to witness it.
      The speaker says in lines 7-9 "I was almost happy / she was gone, & sometimes wanted / to slip in something bad." The speaker portrays the same feelings I had except I was gone with her, the dread of knowing that one day it can go back to how it once was is present in the words.
    In lines 5-7 "He'd beg her / return & promised to never beat her again"  words that are always said for a trap. Komunyakaa uses familiarity and mood to portray the emotions in the speaker.  In line 3 it says "the same letter" , meaning these are reprated words to the mother, broken promises she refuses to acknowledge.
       The author wrote of such a realistic experience it's hard not to become enticed all that's being spoken to me.
The author also used diction calling the silence they sit in "quiet brutality"(17). The lack of sound expressing their inner thoughts of either she'll fall for it and come back or that she'll rise above and stay gone never to return.
   The speakers story is beautifully portrayed by Komunyakaa.