Tales Of Trickster: No. 3
Trickster, so life always will have meaning and there will be more salmon and trout, ponies and land, makes himself an invisible fire and visits the tent of one who’s just fallen, and slowly burns away flesh from the muscle and sinew from the bone, the very marrow boiling away, to see to it that, while most children are permitted to become old women and men, and most of the sick to become whole again, and most of the women to remain women and most of the men men, no matter how many tears fall from the eyes of parents, lovers, daughters and sons, no matter how deeply the fallen one’s kin gash their faces, arms and legs, no matter how many curses and prayers fall from their lips, all the dead must stay forever dead.
Tale No. 5:
Trickster Becomes Snake, Smoke, Umbilical Cord
When the daughters of the tribe come down to the water to mend nets and wash, Trickster becomes a long black snake sinuous in the weedy shallows wriggling toward their legs, to make them remember their husbands and lovers and run home, hands wild in their hair, limbs gleaming, a scream coiling in their throats. Thus for one more day at least the nets remain unmended, the fish untaken. When the sons of the tribe go out to the fields to dig or stalk game in the woods, Trickster becomes the sinuous smoke of the cooking fires rising high above the village, and the scents of rich loam, mushroom, musk, to make them remember their wives and lovers and go home, clothes tight around their hips. Thus for one more day at least the fields remain unfurrowed, the deer unfallen. The daughters and sons of the tribe come together. Trickster becomes a hot breeze and enters the tents to see to it the men become unyielding as the plow, the arrow, the women as patient as the net, pliant as the river. Trickster shakes the tent poles. In time, Trickster becomes a long umbilical cord joining the women to the new ones. The midwives enter the tents and cut him in two. He dies until the next tale.
Tales Of Trickster:
No. 6, The Gift Of Fire
When Trickster saw that God fashioned the first woman and man out of clay with great care, the pain of his cramped fingers and the light of squinting eyes, and that he painted their faces in his own image and baked them in his kiln until they were done and breathed hot life between their lips, and when Trickster saw that God placed them on the teeming earth unclothed and then sent reckless winds to snap their limbs and floods to fill their bellies with pestilence, and fire to burn away the insides of bone and breast and lung and rot their perfect flesh he had a plan, and held his sides and laughed, and Trickster’s laughter became a tree that came apart in time to nourish a grove that came apart in time to foster a great forest that grew to cover all the land. And walking in the forest woman and man found shelter from the reckless winds, a home, timber to build boats and weather floods, and blossoming from seasoned wood, a gift of fire.
Tales Of Trickster: No. 7
Trickster in the days before he became Trickster when he was still a young man left the tent and fire of his mother and father and walked out into the desert to abstain from love, food and words and meet God and ask what he should do with his life. After a week without women his penis swelled with hurting large as a rooster. After three weeks without food the pain moved up to his belly, which bloated large as a calf. After seven weeks without words the pain moved up to his tongue, which grew long as a snake. After nine weeks of only light and dark the pain moved up behind his eyes, which blazed like midnight torchlight, and he saw the face of God, who shouted at him from inside his head “Go home. I’ll show you what to do.” When he walked into the village he looked for women to have intercourse with and to prepare him food and he looked for friends to speak with, and priests, to describe to them the face of God but the people feared his swollen penis, distended belly, black tongue, burning eyes, and ran away. And from that day Trickster became Trickster and refused to forgive the people and to this day they know him as Adultery and Rape, Famine and Lies, Hallucination and Mirage.
