The Room Where She Counted Backward (Katherine Johnson)

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
The astronaut
asked for you
by name.
He said
*get the girl
to check
the numbers*
and the girl
was thirty-three
and had been
checking numbers
at Langley
for fourteen years
in a building
across the campus
from the building
where the numbers
mattered
because the building
where the numbers
mattered
had a sign
on the door
that specified
which women
could enter
and the sign
had the stale
cream weight
of a sentence
written
by a man
who had never
checked
a number
in his life.

[Verse 2]
The computer
said the orbit
would work.
The astronaut
did not trust
the computer.
The astronaut
trusted you
because you
had been right
more times
than the computer
had been
plugged in
and the pencil
in your hand
had the warm
graphite certainty
of a woman
who checks
her own work
twice
and has never
needed
a third time.

[Chorus]
You calculated
the trajectory
by hand
that put
a man
in orbit
around the earth
and brought him
back alive
and the trajectory
had to be
right
the first time
because
the second time
was the ocean
and you were
right
the first time
because you
were always
right
the first time
and the pencil
knew it
before
the room did.

[Outro]
They took
the sign
off the door
eventually.
They put
your name
on the building
eventually.
The eventually
took
longer
than the orbit
and shorter
than
your patience
and your patience
was the thing
the room
never learned
to calculate
and you
never
taught them
because
some formulas
you keep
in the hand
and not
on the board.

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