When I fasted
I used to get the shakes:
delicious shakes
over on Ninth Avenue
during my renaissance of responsibility
at a point when I thought so much more
of myself
and knew so much less
of the world.

I got the shakes
every year
during those slow hours
when no nourishment
was to pass my lips.
I did this because
I was stupid
and I thought a shake was a liquid
and thus a solid choice.

But no liquid
according to my god
is permissible
when I am drowning my sins away
through abstinence.

Now, a wiser man,
I do not follow all the rules.
I wash away my apologies
in water
for the moments of the fast
and slowly see fat disperse
as my sins wisp away
to be clean, once again,
until tomorrow.