︎

The Fake Love Feels Like

︎︎︎ Will Mountain Cox
︎ JUNE 17, 2022

The fake love feels like
the proof of God.
The fake love feels like
taking off your t-shirt.
The fake love feels like
taping up a ripped hundred
and passing it.
The fake love feels like luck.
The fake love feels like
being slick at punching.
The fake love feels like
finding candy on the street
and being sure it’s safe.
The fake love feels like Shakespeare.
The fake love feels like
lifting weights
and being appreciated.
The fake love feels like
getting double at the vending machine.
The fake love feels like
the newest Tesla.
The fake love feels like medicine.
The fake love feels like
never flipping the table,
never breaking the window,
never throwing someone else’s precious object
off the highest roof.
The fake love feels like
telling a love story
you’ve never heard before.
Real love is nothing
very much worth explaining.









































Will Mountain Cox is from Portland, Oregon and lives in Paris, France. His writing has been published by Hobart, Vol. 1 Brooklyn, The Drunken Canal, and others. His first book, With Paris in Mind, was published by Relegation Books and named a 2019 "Favourite Book" by Shakespeare and Company. Will relates to people who feel foreign at home and home in a foreign place. willmountaincox.com