Ramadan

A month of fasting.

My guess is this would be tough
for compulsive eaters.
Both not eating during days
and the idea of making it up
come sundown.
That feeds both major obsessions,
anorexia and bingeing.
I decided once to fast one day weekly,
discovered conflicts with Holy Communion
and my birthday. How do you fast
when people expect you to eat?
One weekend a group fasted,
to be broken Sunday morning.
I went grocery shopping Saturday
with a youth not participating.
When he offered me gum, I declined
not because I thought of the violation
but not liking chewing gum.
Why do I remember that
forty-four years later? What did I learn?
That fasting in the right spirit makes sense
but when it's an external order
the meaning is lost.