In the poem “Not Bad, Dad, Not Bad” by Jan Heller Levi, a child talks about watching their father swim, and thinking about their relationship with their father. One can reasonably infer from the poem that the relationship between the child and the father is mostly on good terms, but still a little rocky. The child seems comfortable enough with the father, commenting light-heartedly about the funny way the father breathes while swimming. “[T]he funny way you breathe/your mouth cocked as though you're yawning”(3-4). However, the child reveals later on that they were too critical on their father in the past, and always had wanted him to become his ideal, perfect version of a father. They did not know that their father was doing the best to
