My Papa's Waltz

I see this poem to be about a boy who is clearly scared of his papa. From the first couple of lines, "The whiskey on your breath Could make a small boy dizzy; But I hung on like death." I get the impression that when papa drinks the boy fears for his life. In the thrid paragrahp it says, "The hand that held my wrist Was battered on one knucle;" To me this shows a sign of abuse, because he probably got his battered knuckle from punching his son and or other things.
I think that the word Waltz was more of a symbolic meaning.