1 Ramadan

  THE INEVITABLE    

 It's like practicing for death. No food or drink
  during daylight hours no matter
   what, in the
  heat of summer or
   cold of winter,
 and no way out of it but through
 sickness, pregnancy, menstruation, madness or travel.
 So that

 it's something that comes
 inevitably each year, like it or not, whether or not
  you've got a knack for it, and
   some do, and love to fast, and
     thrive on it, but
    I do not, yet

 each year it makes its visit, and year after
   year it builds up to be a
   sweet thing,

 which makes it like death, the way it's
 always on the
 horizon, and an
 absolute obligation, which must be

 why Muslims often die well. They've had a
 lifetime of Ramadans tenderizing them
 for The Inevitable. And The

 Inevitable surely comes.