My Papa's Waltz

Is this a poem about abuse? I don't know-the line that I have always thought brings it to abuse is this one, which I think I read a little differently than some: "At every step you missed/ My right ear scraped a buckle". Now, bear with me, I'm not sure where I got this interpretation, if it was pointed out by a professor in college, or what, but I have always read that as the buckle of the belt scraping his ear each time his father missed his target while whipping him with the belt.
Is it about abuse? I don't know. I do know that this speaker obviously has at least ambiguous feelings about his father-millions of people do not say "hey, could that be about getting beat" unless there's a bit of that tone in the poem. Is it about getting beat up while mom looks on, or is it just an examination of a relationship that was at times great, at times, dizzying, and at times very much like death itself?