The Three Fates

The Three Fates

by Lorraine Schein

FATE. Zoom, a fate blue around the edges heads for you. Your life is changed; there's nothing you can do.

FATE. Fate, called Moira by the Greeks, is a great power older than the oldest gods. Moira is a woman. Prophecy is fate's handmaiden. Plato thought fate and love were the same. The word fairy also means fate. In Old Norse, the word for fate is the same as that for the sexual organs.

FATE. Your lover is walking toward you, as is Death. Their faces reflect each other--shimmering, superimposed, the features of one becoming the shadows on the other.

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Lorraine Schein is a NY writer. Her work has appeared in Strange Horizons, VICE Terraform, Syntax and Salt, and Star*Line and in the anthologies Gigantic Worlds, Tragedy Queens: Stories Inspired by Lana del Rey & Sylvia Plath, and Multiverse–An International Anthology of SF Poetry. The Futurist’s Mistress, her poetry book, is available from mayapplepress.com.

What advice do you have for other poets?

Fantasy in poetry is part of a long tradition, that has been mostly usurped by what is thought of as good modern poetry today. So be aware your writing is participating
in a history of great poems, but also play with fantasy tropes to create something fresh. Also don’t give up on old poems—I wrote “The Three Fates” over 20 years ago!