The Yellow Children of Monticello by Pam Ward
The Yellow Children of Monticello for my cousins, descendant of Sally Hemmings Before Roosevelt Way before J.F.K. Before Clinton claimed, “I Did Not Have Sex!” on tv. Before Monica Lewinsky tripped & forgot to wash her dress. Thomas Jefferson was banging out tots like a fiend. Making a banquet out of Sally Hemmings’ body he created more kids than he could track. Jefferson kept his black children under lock & key all while singing “Oh Say Can We See.” All his pickaninnies, tall and skinny looked exactly like him and nobody blinked nobody batted a lash seeing these yellow children of Monticello springing everywhere like weeds. They heard Thomas’ cry for freedom turn into bedroom deceits. They watched their father, a boll weevil, feast on fresh drawls like a cotton gin separating seeds. And when they realized he would never, never, never, never, never, never, never, set them free they read his Declaration of Independence they waited for a harmony of coughs they watched this ‘Apostle of the Constitution” and willed bronchitis to drum …