Fred Beake: Signs

The Romans to resolve
their death-grapple with Hannibal

sent a fair part of their cabinet
half the known world

to fetch a chancy god
from Asia Minor

When I was pruning
the Reverend Goodman's apple trees

nostalgic for a love
that shall not be repeated

an apple on a twig
brushed me with new beginnings

Somewhere beyond hopelessness
the two connect

This poem originally appeared in Acumen and is available in Fred Beake's book The Whiteness of Her Becoming (Salzburg University Press, 1992).