"Sticks" by Thomas Sayers Ellis

I enjoyed reading this poem because I can relate to having a father who's strong, tough, and extremely hard/cold. At the beginning of my life, when I was about three years old, I hated my father. We never had that typical "daddy's little girl" relationship. One of Ellis's first lines explains my dad's outlook on life: "Kind and lack of size were nothing more than sissified signs of weakness." Yes, I am a female, his youngest daughter, but he often says he wishes he had more sons. My father still tried to plant that sort of masculine attitude in me. I mean, I'm not weak, well as not as weak as he think I am. I cry, smile, laugh, and make mistakes. But we (my dad and I) have never had a conversation about how I feel about him, or how we feel about each other, and about the mistakes we both have made. Like I said, we both have made mistakes, but he has changed. Our relationship has improved so much; we have conversations about his life, and what he has been through. He had to be brave when he left Mexico at the age of 14 or 15; so along with becoming independent, he left those emotions behind. I don't want to go into detail about my dad's struggle, but now I understand why he is the way he is, and I respect him for that.