The speaker is the literate son of a blue-collar mill worker and an absent mother. Tasked with writing his illiterate father's love letters, he manages complex feelings of resentment over his family's fracture, relief regarding his mother's safety, and admiration for his father's manual craftsmanship. He acts as the intermediary between his estranged parents, wielding his ballpoint pen as a tool of communication.

The speaker's father is a hardworking carpenter and mill worker who struggles to express himself verbally. Unable to read or write beyond signing his own name, he relies on his son to document his pleas to his estranged wife. Despite his proficiency with physical tools and an appreciation for natural beauty, he carries a history of domestic violence that drove his wife away.

The speaker's mother is absent from the family home, having left to escape her husband's physical violence. She communicates from afar by mailing postcards from an arid environment. A fan of jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams, she used music to cope with the pain of her husband's outbursts before finally deciding to leave the household.