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Three Sisters
Clotho
When mother sat me down, I feared the worst.
Her words, however, offered praise instead.
“Your gentle hands are motherly,” she said.
“That’s why I’ve chosen you to be the first
of three, the Fates, henceforth to spin the thread
of life.” I sit before the spinning wheel,
and every thread I spin, I spin with zeal,
to make my mother proud. The sheep are led
to shearing, wool is carded, washed. I feel
the texture, baby-soft; and then there’s silk
from spun cocoons (to me that’s mother’s milk).
I hold a world within my hands, reveal
the birthing child as either girl or boy,
and every thread’s a life that brings me joy.
.
Lachesis
We sisters three, the Fates, as progeny
of Themis, she who counsels Jove, are bound
by laws of gods, not men. “Your mind is sound,
your instinct good. Responsibility
is yours to render judgment as to death;
and notwithstanding every life’s a treasure,
as Clotho spins, so you will take the measure,
the moment they will draw their final breath.”
My mother’s words were like a smithy’s weight,
but inner strength was always my cuirass.
My oath: to meet and hopefully surpass
all expectation, prove there’s more to Fate
than happenstance; and so, as law demands,
I hold a thread of life between my hands.
.
Atropos
I cut the thread of life as Lachesis
commands, yet I’m the sister hated most;
while Clotho, always pale, is like a ghost,
but plays a sweetheart role, our darling sis.
I often feel that mine’s a thankless job.
It calls for perfect vision, nerves of steel,
and steady hands. No matter what I feel,
I mustn’t let them see or hear me sob.
Instead, I focus on the tools of trade:
my newest toy, a laser, cleanly cuts,
but if I’m off a hair, I get tut-tuts.
I also have a special scalpel, made
of black obsidian found on isles of Greece.
To all the lives I end—rest in peace.
.
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Cheryl Corey’s recent credits include the current issue of Iconoclast and www.grand-little-things.com. Other publications include Iambs & Trochees, Deronda, The NeoVictorian/Cochlea, The Comstock Review, Mobius, and Time of Singing. In 2007 she received 1st Place for the Dylan Thomas Award and Honorable Mention for the June Kraeft Memorial Award in The World Order of Narrative and Formalist Poets contest.
I always forget the names of the Fates, apart from Clotho and I read that in Lycidas even Milton manages to confuse them with the Furies, so I find these poems very instructive. The laser must have made life easier for Atropos, or at least easier to finish it.
Yeah, I had a little fun with that one.
I used the Fates in one of my ‘Lost’ Canterbury Tales, and as Peter says, they can get confused. I wish your poems had been on hand to keep me straight.
Educative, skillful and evocative – who needs more from this trio of sonnets?
Thanks for the reads, Cheryl.
This was my first attempt at a sonnet sequence, and the Fates came to mind. I wanted to give a voice to each sister, so I imagined Clotho as happy in her work, Lachesis as the one who’s serious, and Atropos as feeling somewhat neglected and underappreciated.
Cheryl, a fine, imaginative psychological dissection of the three sisters. I loved the contemporaneous use of the word “sis” which made the subsequent appearance of the word “laser” less of a surprise! And the silent iamb in the final couplet works wonderfully, ending the set with a most satisfying RIP.
Atropos (“the unturning one”) is a dark figure, because she cannot be turned away from her decision as to when to cut short the thread of a human life. That’s why the Romans called her “Morta” — the Dead One.
Good sonnets, and a well-constructed trio, with the usually unremembered mother as the unifier (even though the ungrateful Atropos doesn’t mention her while complaining of assigned duty). The three definitely show differing psychology. As I know the myth, Lachesis is the assigner of destiny (one’ role in life), rather than of length of life. I had always presumed Atropos decided the time of death, as well as carried out the clipping. Did you knowingly tweak the story, so that Atropos can feel “unreasonably” despised, because Lachesis is really the one responsible for that final decision?
I do like the pleasantly woven rhyme scheme for Clotho’s sonnet (contrasting to the plain closed quatrain Shakespearean sonnets for the other two sisters). All three have effective couplets, and in Atropos’ final line, you use the m-dash in place of an unaccented syllable, as a singer would take a breath rather than sing a sound. It’s an eerie way to complete the set of three!
As I lack your in-depth knowledge of myth, my simplistic understanding is that Clotho spins, Lachesis measures, and Atropos cuts; but of course, they’re meant to be a team. I pictured Atropos, being the cutter, as getting a raw deal. I’m glad you liked the trio overall.