Goal

I need to trade
for a massage with you
I don’t know what
I could give you
but I need one soon
a good one soon
well please
well billions
need maybe a massage
maybe millions
don’t miss a massage
or know the feeling
the missing
or care once alerted
and millions don’t care
that not having a massage
after a while it feels like life
the feeling needing a massage
the feeling bearing no massage
fibrous knots and twisted stalks
a stream from the eyes wild
a scorching repressed cough
through the earth’s hearty crust
of sad amazement
the earth’s mouth and ears
of toddling antiquity
burrowed phantom stresses
seeping into buried flashes of light

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Michael Anichini holds an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is from Chicago, where he currently lives and works.