Certainly not anaemia, certainly not ethereal
The first summer moon, the grass they set ablaze,
The memory spreading seeds of wild voices and frozen trees:
Let friends, jaded skies lead you
To the offspring of clouds and kites -
Do they still call her life? -
While a womb-shaking frenzy
Wonders why we can’t dwell in a blue twilight
In love with Atropos’ threads.
And now you stop whining, soul,
Yes, now, look at those girls
Sporting flowers and pink laces,
Look at them girls on a shopping binge:
Books and bling -
No, not stars, I say bling -
It’s not their fault, mind, if days breathe,
You sure men, white lies, hot stuff matter at all?
C’mon, don’t kid yourself,
Don’t you remember you threw adrenaline to the sky
And got a shock so many times?
You were a child.
Some tips for you:
Live colours, keep books bare,
No lovers, no delays, careful now:
You cut away a chunk of rebel heaven -
The lunatic fringe, yes?
You’ll have to live on new heavens, I’m afraid -
And they’ll grab you on the fly.
[from "A BLUE SOUL," Argotist Ebooks]
Clotho, Lachesis and Atropos -- John Karnaras
The first summer moon, the grass they set ablaze,
The memory spreading seeds of wild voices and frozen trees:
Let friends, jaded skies lead you
To the offspring of clouds and kites -
Do they still call her life? -
While a womb-shaking frenzy
Wonders why we can’t dwell in a blue twilight
In love with Atropos’ threads.
And now you stop whining, soul,
Yes, now, look at those girls
Sporting flowers and pink laces,
Look at them girls on a shopping binge:
Books and bling -
No, not stars, I say bling -
It’s not their fault, mind, if days breathe,
You sure men, white lies, hot stuff matter at all?
C’mon, don’t kid yourself,
Don’t you remember you threw adrenaline to the sky
And got a shock so many times?
You were a child.
Some tips for you:
Live colours, keep books bare,
No lovers, no delays, careful now:
You cut away a chunk of rebel heaven -
The lunatic fringe, yes?
You’ll have to live on new heavens, I’m afraid -
And they’ll grab you on the fly.
[from "A BLUE SOUL," Argotist Ebooks]
The Moirai (Fates) were the Greek incarnations of destiny who controlled everyone's thread of life. Not even the gods were free of their decrees. Klotho (spinner), Lakhesis (allotter) and Atropos ("unturnable," a metaphor for death) were, according to Hesiodos, the daughters of Nyx (night), and thus the sisters of the Keres (death goddesses who personified violent death, called the "Darknesses" by Marcus Tullius Cicero)), Thanatos (death), Nemesis (retribution), and Hypnos (sleep), but later writers regarded them as the offspring of Zeus and Themis, the Titaness who personified divine order, fairness, law, natural law, and custom; as such they were the sisters of Eunomoa (goddess of good order and lawful conduct), Dike (the goddess of justice), Irini (peace), and the 3 Horai (the seasons) who guarded the gates of Olympus, promoted the fertility of the earth, rallied the stars and constellations, and danced the cycle of the year. Platon identified them as the children of Ananke (necessity), the consort/daughter of Kronos (time) who emerged from the beginning of creation as an incorporeal snake whose outstretched arms encompassed the cosmos before the pair mingled together in serpentine form as a tie around the earth and crushed the primal egg into its constituent parts (earth, sea, and heaven). Platon described the Moirai as the "three who sat round about at equal intervals, each one on her throne..., clad in white vestments with filleted heads ... who sang in unison with the music of the Seirenes [Sirens], Lakhesis singing the things that were, Klotho the things that are, and Atropos the things that are to be. Atropos was the oldest of the 3, known as "the Inflexible One" to the 2nd century Christian theologian Titus Flavius Clemens (St. Clement of Alexandria). Klotho spun the thread, Lakhesis measured its length, and Atropos cut it and chose the mechanism of death. To the Greeks they were the "apportioners," but to the Romans they were the Parcae (the "sparing ones") and renamed them -- Klotho became Nona (the 9th), Lakhesis became Decima (10th), and Atropos was Morta (Dead One).
ReplyDelete