The son appears to be slightly angry with his father in the first two lines but it is also as if he does not know what to do to help him.
When the father speaks in the first stanza the anger in his voice is portrayed by the use of exclamation marks. The use of the word "choke" shows us how hard it is for the father just to do the normal things in life like eating without his wife. Because his wife has not made the food he has to force it down and the reader gets this idea by the use of this word. The use of the colloquial word "mam's" shows a kind of unspoken bond between the two men and brings in the fact that the father is not the only one to lose someone. It reminds the reader that the poet has lost his mother.
In the second stanza the commentary from the poet is in brackets. "(The diabetes comes hard on the track of two coronaries and cataracts.)" And it seems to be added as way for the poet to let the reader know that the diabetes is not the only thing that has happened to his father since his mothers" death. .
In the second part of the poem the reader learns that the mother has been dead for two years and despite this the father still does things for her. The poet uses mundane and routine incidents such as "Warming her slippers by the gas" and "putting hot water bottles her side of the bed" to convey a normal husband/wife loving relationship. The use of these everyday examples of what people do helps the reader to empathise with the father and show compassion in the situation. The use here and throughout the poem of colloquial language and a conversational tone makes the poem easy and clear to assimilate. It also instils the main theme of the poem into the readers mind, the theme of hope and denial. The fathers hope that the mother is coming back and the denial that she has actually gone.
In the second stanza of the second part of the poem the poet uses short sentences in a colloquial language "You couldn't just drop in.