The Riddle Thief

"Woe to the once-hallowed trickster. In ancient mythologies, the riddler-thief and agent of change held a position of prestige. Now, we don’t know what to do with him."

Who shall I steal from for today?

There are divinities who don't
Scruple to punish their servants,
Even if both divinity
And servitude are human dreams.
To wake from either you need me,

Loki W. Coyote,
Messenger interlocutor,
Dissembling craven underling,
Intermediary blurring
The terms of maze and labyrinth,
The something you glimpsed in a well.

I am an empty container
Once the container's been broken
And the emptiness is what's left.
I'm the game outside arenas,
The war about no boundaries,
The lawgiver of lawless things.

I'm wholly your own creation,
Holy after your destruction,
The gap that makes the axiom.
What you see's what you make of me.
What you seize is gone before me.

I'm the signal that means there's noise.

I don't fit into hierarchy.
There's no good way to punish me.
Only foolishness rewards me.
I'm gab, quicksilver in your ear.

In my smoky, showy boasting
I'm beginning to disappear.