Jack Ryan

If Sally Hemings was the Mother of America by Jack Ryan

if Sally Hemings was the mother of America, men would not stand alone in the Declaration, but joined by two freeing words

and women whose lives toiled Monticello’s dirt casket could sit behind that sunrise in the golden chair and tap a velvet glove atop that brown Resolute.

if Sally Hemings was the mother of America, that dream deferred was answered as the White Lion sailed away and

teenagers in Mississippi walked home with bubble gum in their mouths and a whistle in their pockets.

little boys in Cleveland played with toys on playgrounds and

white men worshipped that cross beneath their collar

without hammering the nails into his brown palms.