they covered us today,

wrapped the codebreakers in silence,

smothered the war-winners in brown paper,

as if history was a mistake.

they said it was about dei—

as if women saving their fathers,

their brothers, their sons

was some kind of modern agenda.

the same men who scream about erasure

when a slaver’s statue falls

have no trouble burying us,

sealing us away like we were never here.

but we cracked the codes.

we won the war.

and we will not be erased.