My Papa's Waltz Lesson Plan

What is happening between the boy and the father in this poem?

This question serves as an introduction to the Debate activity. Several students will probably say at first that this is a poem about the wild, joyous relationship between father and son, but if you let the question set in, it's likely a few students will ask questions about the clues that this might be a more complex situation: the fact that the father is likely drunk ("the whiskey on your breath"), the clear aggression of some of the movements (knocking pans "from the kitchen shelf," the child scraping his ear on the father's belt buckle), or even the forceful choice of terms like "hung on" and "clinging."...