Saint Pythia is ready to reveal your fate.
She breathes a heady air of weed and wisdom,
her sibilant tongue flick-forking out to taste
the possibilities, there are so many possibilities,
why should there be only two possibilities, two
prongs to the serpent’s tongue?

Saint Pythia leans forward. You cry: Wait.
Hold back your knowledge a moment yet. Preserve
what illusion I still have of being free.
No pretense to freedom can survive with
destiny predestined, all my rites prewritten,
my future fated, a song already sung.

Saint Pythia in multifarious susurration speaks.
Hisses, laughter, distant shouts, each word
echoing, redoubling, a great chorus comprising
every kind of voice, there are so many voices,
why should there be only one voice, one
thing for an Oracle to say?

Saint Pythia symphonizes. You feel weak,
exposed: here is every choice you ever made
from birth onward: this or that? yes or no?
Fly or fall, A B or C, and each choice yours.
If circumstance confined, still you made freely
every choice that led you to this day.

Saint Pythia leans forward. So do you.
She exhales a heavy air of triumphs and regrets.
You breathe it in and watch tomorrow unfold,
each crease as familiar as the lines that cross
your palm, pressed by your own hand so
firmly into place.

Saint Pythia sends you out, to walk into
the tomorrow that you chose, and with each step
you make more choices still, there are so many choices,
and so you write the day after tomorrow,
and each day after that, and so on through
the end of all your days.

[Nicole J. LeBoeuf is a New Orleanian writer of short speculative fiction and poetry appearing in such venues as Apex Magazine, Cast of Wonders, Star*Line, Dreams and Nightmares, and Sycorax Journal. Her poem “On the Limitations of Photographic Evidence in Fairyland” was a 2023 Rhysling Award finalist. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and their adorably criminal rabbit. Her not-so-secret superhero identity is skater Fleur de Beast with Boulder County Roller Derby. Find her online at nicolejleboeuf.com.]