Notes About The Poem

Caveat: do not fast if climbing Mount Everest 


 

Fasting Cure

There were potato chips
and hot fudge sundaes
and chocolate doughnuts
and peanut-butter bars
and cheesecake
and apple pie
and pistachio ice cream
and cereals dressed up as candy.
The banquet was endless.

But I didn’t feel good.

I sat in a library
found a book
On a protein diet
Thought all my problems
would be solved.
Goose pimples marched up my spine,
the chill of the newly converted,
as if I had joined
The enlightened.

So I ate tuna and mayo for breakfast
meat and chicken and eggs
wouldn't allow a breadcrumb 
into my mouth
I lost weight
I lost bone mass
I lost muscle
For good.

But I didn't feel good.

After too much of this
I discovered fasting:
No snacks
no in between
no lunch
not much protein
not much sugar
not much fat
except some oil
and I finally felt:

good.

I learned that animals
lived longer
if they underate
The student
would carry well fed rats
who had died of old age
out of the cages
but the fasting ones
kept going.

I became a born-again messenger
of the need to fast
I was a good advertisement
for the results
until my past
caught up with me
Bad guys targeted me
with a new kind of science
But until then
I was handsome:

Not sure that was such a good thing
But feeling better was.

We live in a land
where food is close by
always.
It takes discipline
to get the good
without the bad
To fast
Sensibly
Moderation in all things
is a slogan
that's not always true.

I tried to get my brother
to give it a try
He thought it might work
But he said
He didn't want to be
Handsome, lean, and athletic
He was happy
with a beer
and an occasional cake
with his friends
and maybe he's right.

But I say 
Fast
Anyway.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

Poem

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