We Go to Buy a Second-Hand Travel Cot

slept in once or twice by someone’s infant
or grandchild or friend’s baby. The trip

to Roundabout offers a winter excursion
through six-day old snow finally beginning

to turn to slush. Not certain whether we’ll ever
actually use the cot but excited by the prospect

that we’ll pay less than half the previous owner’s
purchase price, we pile into the car,

which swivels and skids a bit on the last of the ice,
squint into sparkle, the first sunlight in over

a week, breathe in new prospects, sigh our security,
our well-planned, well-played providence.

Mary Rozmus West grew up in the United States but has lived in Bath, England, for 24 years. She holds a doctorate in English literature from Fordham University in New York. She has remarked that,  following a career in the commercial and public sectors, she has ‘returned to [my] first love, literature, with an enthusiasm which perforce had to be side-lined for many years.’