A Devonshire Engagement
︎︎︎ Will Mountain Cox
︎ Aug 11, 2025
Miniature donkeys, maximal horses,
and trusting in their snuffling presence.
A country night without moon or stars
when we made our impromptu proposals in the pitch dark.
Devonshire hills and Devonshire Yeoman,
the fading electric green of the hills
and the silage-dressed theater of the hills,
and the mutton with the downy sleeping cheeks the dark contains.
I cannot see your hand an inch in front of my face,
your little hand, with its new ring on it,
but I will trust it’s there, since I’m the one who placed it there,
the one who said the word “forever,” which made the darkness dare.
If I were to reach for you in the dark
and find that this was all a trick of the light,
then I would surely be forgiven if
I emptied the dark of any latent sound and checked the time.
The lume of my watch is radioactive, but has decayed.
It is half-past kissing time, time to kiss again.
and trusting in their snuffling presence.
A country night without moon or stars
when we made our impromptu proposals in the pitch dark.
Devonshire hills and Devonshire Yeoman,
the fading electric green of the hills
and the silage-dressed theater of the hills,
and the mutton with the downy sleeping cheeks the dark contains.
I cannot see your hand an inch in front of my face,
your little hand, with its new ring on it,
but I will trust it’s there, since I’m the one who placed it there,
the one who said the word “forever,” which made the darkness dare.
If I were to reach for you in the dark
and find that this was all a trick of the light,
then I would surely be forgiven if
I emptied the dark of any latent sound and checked the time.
The lume of my watch is radioactive, but has decayed.
It is half-past kissing time, time to kiss again.
Will Mountain Cox is the author of the novel Roundabout and editor of the forthcoming anthology The Relegation Reader. He lives in Paris, France.
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