Day 1,041

How will this young mother
keep her newborn infant alive
when she has so little milk?
No formula. No diapers.
She wraps her tiny daughter
in cloth torn from an old shirt.
Wraps plastic around the cloth.
Tears another strip of cloth,
another. Her infant is so small,
a single shirt makes seven diapers.
A neighbor whose child
is a few months older
offers to nurse her baby
when she can’t. Assures her
the milk will come in. Someone else
has more cloth. Someone
has a clean blanket, someone
brings bread and vegetables
for the mother. Her tent fills
with women, with care
for her tiny daughter.
She holds her, kisses her head,
her perfect hands. Her fingernails.