Father Returns from the Mountain by Luis Alberto Urrea the most poetic of the stories. It had many poetic elements in it, including a great deal of imagery. The detail used in describing everything from the car after the accident to his father's body laid bare on a table at the clinic was astounding. Urrea used metaphors like, “The truth is a diamond, or at least a broken mirror,” dreams are also “diamonds” and “broken mirrors,” “His mouth is a traitor,” as well as his description of his father's body as “a slab of meat,” the blood running down his cheek as an “endless snail of red,” and the grave as “the black mouth.” (Urrea 1296-1298) Urrea also uses several similes in the story, saying the the photograph trapped under the seat was “fluttering like a flag, like a bird trapped in the wind” and his father's captain's uniform looks “as crisp as salad.” (Urrea 1296; 1297) The author also employs a good deal of personification.
