Fat Chances
You know, I think it might be
Mardi Gras
Crept up on me this year
Probably last year, too
Fat Tuesday
Fastnacht in these parts
Shrove Tuesday
Shrove another word for
Get the fat out of the house
Ascetic Lent is coming
Tonight we consume or share
Tomorrow we wear ashes
I know our cultures
Make much in making merry
Merry’s fine
Merry’s good
Maybe we’ll smile the smile of knowing
During Lent
C L Couch
Photo by Amy Syiek on Unsplash
An early morning stroll through Somerville I could smell the donuts … amazing! http://unionsquaredonuts.com/
(fastnacht in German Pennsylvania is also a food, not unlike a doughnut)
clcouch123 
February 25, 2020 at 1:50 pm
I wonder how many people who are shroving today and wearing ashes tomorrow will be fasting for forty days? I mean real fasting like the poor did in the middle ages and like about half the world does as a matter of course? As you point out, we’re great on the merry-making binge-eating side of things, less so on the contrasting one.
February 25, 2020 at 9:37 pm
I’m afraid I’m skeptical over how many will experience Mardi Gras today and Ash Wednesday tomorrow and appreciate the difference. The next days would be a helpful and a growing time to consider the poor back then and now. How many go hungry (then and now), how many children. The basic needs need to be met. On a planet with so much, this would be a great season to commit to feeding everyone.
February 25, 2020 at 9:52 pm
No, I’m sceptical too. Whatever ‘we’ might say we wanted, in theory or even being prepared to make sacrifices to put it into practice, the ones who control what we eat, the shadowy heads of agribusiness, the pharmachemicals, the financiers, they are the ones who decide who gets what, when, why and for how much.
February 26, 2020 at 4:37 am
ah. i think we love making merry to mask what is empty. and the lent smile is another kind of merry, a peaceful one, perhaps.
February 26, 2020 at 7:19 pm
My goodness, you have said it, sister: “we love making merry to mask what is empty.” Lent, I hope, is a filling-up time for you, maybe filling up with peace.
February 27, 2020 at 3:45 am
Thank you, brother! and I pray the same for you!