Mouths full of laughter,
the turistas come to the tall hotel
with suitcases full of dollars.
Every morning my brother makes
the cool beach new for them.
With a wooden board he smooths
away all footprints.
I peek through the cactus fence
and watch the women rub oil
sweeter than honey into their arms and legs
while their children jump waves`
or sip drinks from long straws,
coconut white, mango yellow.
Once my little sister
ran barefoot across the hot sand
for a taste.
My mother roared like the ocean,
“No. No. It’s their beach.
It’s their beach.”
1991
Regular
Chicano Poetry
Children's
Contemporary
2025
Bilingual
Family
Nature
Racial Injustice
Dialogue
conversation between two or more people as a feature of a book, play, or movie
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Imagery
visually descriptive or figurative language, especially in a literary work
Repetition
a recurrence of the same word or phrase two or more times
Sensory Detail
words used to invoke the five senses (vision, hearing, taste, touch, smell)
Simile
a comparison between two unlike things using the words “like” or “as”