Three Poems by Albert Goldbarth

Three Poems: Albert Goldbarth “In the poem ‘The Names’ by Billy Collins, On page 125, em dashes in lines 14, 23, 37, and 40 were mistakenly printed as question marks.” —errata slip in The Poets Laureate Anthology published by W. W. Norton The needle gets poked in my eyeball and the fluid—the cure, the maybe cure—is injected into the macula, and then fingers get crossed. That’s why, when the ocular specialist explains it at the initial consultation, a nurse stands awkwardly in the doorway: she’s a witness. In case it comes to court, she’ll say that nothing was guaranteed. They do their best to halt the leaking spidershape of blood and yet they don’t know—any more than on another floor the oncologist knows, or the meteorologist knows, or the presidential election pollster, or the bookie, it’s all a calculus determined by dice of antimatter. The groom-to-be is out with his buddies, stupefied and slurring and staring into the pitcher of beer as if it’s a crystal ball (but trust me, it’s not). The bride-to-be is consulting Gwen,