But we're on quite a story together right now
at this moment in American history and world history.
And we have trickster figures.
Every culture has trickster figures.
For some people, it's coyote or coyote, some it's spider.
For us, the Muskogee people, it's rabbit.
And in our societies, tricksters play a particular role.
In a lot of societies all over the world,
often you have the leader figure and then
there's a clown or a clown system
or a trickster nearby acting out in polarity.
But right now in this country, it's reversed.
So this poem is a contemporary trickster story
sort of about what we all wonder about, how did we get here?
Who are where?
Where are we going?
And nobody ever really answers it.
But with poetry, we have.
We find all the doorways.
"Rabbit is up to Tricks."
In a world long before this one, there is enough for everyone
until somebody got out of line.
We heard it was Rabbit fooling around with clay in the wind.
Everyone was tired of his tricks and no one would play with him,
and he was lonely in this world.
So Rabbit thought to make a person.
And when he blew into the mouth of that crude figure
to see what would happen, the clay man stood up.
Rabbit showed the clay man how to steal the chicken,
the clay man obeyed.
Then he showed him how to steal corn, the clay man obeyed.
Then he showed him how to steal someone else's wife,
and that clay man obeyed.
Rabbit felt important and powerful,
and clay man felt important and powerful.
And once that clay man started, he could not stop.
Once he took that chicken, he wanted all the chickens.
Once he took that corn, he wanted all the corn.
And once he took that wife, well, he wanted all the wives.
He was insatiable.
Then he had a taste of gold.
He wanted all the gold.
Soon it was land or anything else he saw.
His wanting only made him want more.
Soon it was countries, then it was trade.
So wanting infected the Earth.
We lost track of the purpose and meaning of life.
We began to forget our songs, our stories.
We can no longer see or hear our ancestors
or talk with each other across the kitchen table.
Forests were being mowed down all
over the world to make more.
And Rabbit had no place left to play.
Rabbit's trick had backfired.
Rabbit tried to call that clay man back.
But when the clay man wouldn't listen,
Rabbit realized, he'd made a clay man with no ears.