Bathing the Baby

Later the video will show her drinking the bath water as it is poured

over her, opening her mouth to the liquid warmth, laughing.

Outside is a dry season of heat; inside, cool camera light.

She laughs, and we forget the drought and her ancestors walking

beside wagons through blazing air toward the Great Salt Lake.

We forget the other relatives marching through the parched desert

to Syria and beyond. She laughs at water and we laugh.