8. identify the poetic devices in use (simile, metaphor, alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia, assonance,
my father is a simple man
by luis omar salinas
i walk to town with my father
to buy a newspaper. he walks slower
than i do so i must slow up.
the street is filled with children.
we argue about the price
of pomegranates, i convince
him it is the fruit of scholars.
he has taken me on this journey
and it’s been lifelong.
he’s sure i’ll be healthy
so long as i eat more oranges
and tells me the orange
has seeds and so is perpetual;
and we too will come back
like the orange trees.
i ask him what he thinks
about death and he says
he will gladly face it when
it comes but won’t jump
out in front of a car.
i’d gladly give my life
for this man with a sixth
grade education, whose kindness

and patience are true . .
the truth of it is, he’s the scholar,
and when the bitter-hard reality
comes at me like a punishing
evil stranger, i can always
remember that here was a man
who was a worker and provider,
who learned the simple facts
in life and lived by them,
who held no pretense.
and when he leaves without
benefit of fanfare or applause
i shall have learned what little
there is about greatness.

family

my family lives inside a medicine chest:
dad is the super-size band aid, strong and powerful
but not always effective in a crisis.
mom is the middle-size tweezer,
which picks and pokes and pinches.
david is the single small aspirin on the third shelf,
sometimes ignored.
muffin, the sheep dog, is a round cotton ball, stained and dirty,
that pops off the shelf and bounces in my way as i open the door.
and i am the wood and glue which hold us all together with my love.