Summary

The title of "In Newport I Watch My Father Lay His Cheek to a Beached Dolphin's Wet Back" also is the first line of the poem, and begins its narrative. The speaker watches his father caring for this dolphin, while interspersing observations about his father's violent past -- his father's tattoos denote people he may have killed, and the dolphin's teeth are like the guns he may have carried. The speaker remembers the last time he saw his father run it was when he was chasing his mother with a hammer. The father moves the dolphin towards the sea, and the speaker runs out of the car and towards his father. Although he is not close enough to hear, he knows his father is singing his favorite song.

In "The Gift," the speaker's mother is teaching them the English alphabet. The mother only...