In high school Mark wasn’t wild about
high school girls like the rest of us
for a while I thought he was gay but that
wasn’t the case
he was just impervious to their sweet and
cute charms
unlike the rest of us who simply adored them
and wanted one for a girlfriend
there were many girls who had a crush on Mark
maybe more so because he was indifferent
but I don’t think a need to be with any of them
was coded in his DNA
two years after Mark graduated from high school
he went to India and became a Hindu monk
he returns to America once a year to spend some
time with his family
and he is always dressed like a monk when he
visits them
and seems incredibly content and happy
sometimes I’d wished I could have been like Mark
but I knew I couldn’t live without a woman and
that I’d probably go crazy as a woman-deprived monk
I think some people like Mark may be born to be monks
and maybe were monks in former lives
if reincarnation is real
Bob Boyd