Title of Poem: My Brother at 3 AM

Type of Poem: Narrative

Author:  Natalie Diaz

Literal meaning: The brother of the narrator is hallucinating on drugs on the porch of his home at 3 am in front of his mother.

Image: He looked over his shoulder. “The devil does. Look at him, over there.” (Diaz, 11, 12)
meaning: The brother’s hallucination is as scary as the devil himself

Image: The sky wasn’t black or blue but the green of a dying night (Diaz, 14)
meaning: His hallucination is so twisted that the sky changed to green

Image: His lips flickered with sores (Diaz, 16)
meaning: He had sores on his lips that were really noticeable and easy to see.

Lyric device: Repetition. The sky wasn’t black or blue but the green of a dying night (twice) (Diaz, 14, 17)
meaning: emphasizing his hallucination and the only things the brother can focus on

Lyric device: Rhyme. He wants to kill me, he told her, looking over his shoulder. (Diaz, 7, 8)
meaning: Flow of events happening is nicer or smoother with this rhyme

Figurative device: Symbolism. The sky wasn’t black or blue but the green of a dying night. (Diaz, 14)
Meaning: A green sky symbolizes his hallucination.

Figurative device:  Personification. His lips flickered with sores. (Diaz. 20)
Meaning: Lips can’t flicker but Diaz used it to say how bad the sores were

Figurative device: Personification. Stars had closed their eyes or sheathed their knives. (Diaz, 21)
Meaning: The hallucination makes the stars dim, sheathing their knives means the glare you get from them that looks like spikes or almost like knives disappear as they dim.

Theme: It shows how sinister a hallucination could be where you could see yourself as the devil literally through one.