[Header Photo by Glenov Brankovic on Unsplash]

brown men and women
in hard hats
neon yellow and orange shirts
and mud-caked work boots
build apartments
along the rail trail
where i ride my bicycle
for recreation and exercise

i know they are brown
and i have heard them
speaking spanish
but i cannot say they are mexican
or south american
i have seen them smile
and heard them laughing
i don’t know if they are citizens
i don’t know their politics
but i know they are brown

one day i pass them
during lunch
playing soccer
in those mud-caked work boots
on the new asphalt parking lot
as if playing soccer
is the most normal thing to do
in south carolina
in late july 2024
when the whole world
is going to hell
around us

—P.L. Thomas