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Fasting

(after Franz Kafka’s “The Hunger Artist”)

by Thomas R.

They watch her with wonder
They watch her with fear
They see her as memory of ancient blunder
They fail to shed a tear

She is the faster
She who restricts her eating
She knows the world has moved passed her
She knows her ways seem fleeting

Sign encourages their pity and scorn
Sign give them knowledge and her meaning
Sign tells them not to mourn
Sign of her demeaning

This artist of a fast
This ancient sacrifice
This creature of the past
This being who eats little more than rice

Time causes her to become a wraith
Time finds her alone
Time confuses her own faith
Time cuts her to the bone

Sister Scholastica the pentinent dies in her cage.
Forgotten by all
Including herself
She is now free of all rage