The trickster tests my being alive,
Testing, examining with a story,
Am I awake? Will I survive?
Nourish the body. Let my mind revive,
The quiet answer from faded glory.
The trickster tests my being alive.
Storytelling’s a truth I can revive,
A moral lesson comes a priori.
Am I awake? Will I survive?
From the cosmos, one truth I derive,
A successful hunt for the quarry.
The trickster tests my being alive.
The masses dance with such jive,
Their claim shows such vainglory.
Am I awake? Will I survive?
Come and gone like a line-drive,
Not to be examined in a laboratory.
The trickster tests my being alive.
Am I awake? Will I survive?
Francis Conlon is a retired and recovering teacher. For the past 20 years, he has worked as a seasonal river ranger and boat inspector at Yampa River State Park in northwest Colorado. He has published in the local Valley Voice and in Westward Quarterly. He currently lives in Salt Lake City, Utah.