(for Deb)

As the first daffodil
pops up its brave yellow head
on the second-to-last day of January,

the sign in her yard that she planted
the first time still proclaims:

• Black lives matter
• Women’s rights are human rights
• No human is illegal
• Science is real
• Love is love
• Kindness is everything

And I remember my similar sign,
wonder where’s it’s got to—
did I tuck it away or let it go,
thinking it was no longer needed?

Imagining—silly me—that somehow
we’d solved all those thorny issues,
knowing better, of course,
but not wanting to admit

how we still have such a long way
to go, how now, again, more than ever,
we need those signs, not just
stuck in our yards, but plastered
in our hearts and minds,

lovingkindness the order of every day,
each of us looking out for us all
because, truly, there is no them.