Premature Fluids cruise through tubes
into a diminutive nose
as I photograph her first feeding.
Incubator walls reflect
while obstructing Polaroids.

Three floors down, timely babies:
regulate body temperature,
remember to breathe, breast feed,
go home. Nurses promise wrinkled,
loose flesh will puff up healthy;
I love her in any suit.

Spindly limbs flail in a Tupperware tub
for a first bath. She cries like a kitten
while I snap another shot; photos I'll hide
in boxes I never open.

-lrfg
11/05