High Horse

---

a huge man

more like a football linebacker

than a highschool teacher

even w/the nerd bowl-cut

pens in shirt chest pocket

he taught world history

like I expected it to be—

and how I guess it’s still taught—

outline on the board

lectures

tests based on ability

to memorize facts + dates

but he made class interesting

w/stories—

like his vivid telling of

the Battle of Thermopylae

long before that graphic novel or movie

using his body to demonstrate

how the spartans held

twohanded swords in each hand

and stacked the dead bodies

of the persians

along the narrow pass walls—

we could see the spartans:

they looked like Mr. Brown

sometimes before classes started

he would tell us about his personal life

he lived in a round house

the foundation for which

he dug himself

w/a shovel

he subscribed to Pravda

a russian newspaper in english

my first exposure

to the idea that other countries

might have other narratives

other truths

I did not do so well

first semester

never been a good memorizer

but second semester

I got As

best in the class

figured out which facts

he was looking for

or could have been entirely

from changing from first period

when I was still half-asleep

to fourth

but he was proud of me

in a world where no one was

Mr. Brown remained legendary

among my friends

as we became adults

w/sentences always beginning remember when—

remember when Mr. Brown picked up

Jeremy + his desk + carried him into the hall?

remember when Mr. Brown broke up that fight

in the hall

by lifting both boys up by their shirts?

never occurred to me that Mr. Brown

could drink alcohol

much less be an alcoholic

until decades later

we found out that he/d

gotten so drunk

he drove the wrong way on Highway 127

head-on into a car

killing a whole family

news article quoting him as saying

that he accepted going to prison

that he had broken the law

needed to pay his debt

to society

I recently found out

that Mr. Brown died

in prison

apparently or supposedly

from complications from a

respiratory virus

or that/s the offical narrative—

thats what he taught me

(tho not sure he wanted to)

that narratives are more interesting

than facts

losers dont write the histories

maybe they shouldnt

tho sometimes

like the spartans at Thermopylae

they are remembered

even as

one fact

can change the narrative

+ heroes

arent

even if we still

kind of want them to be

---

Born in Puerto Rico, John Yohe has worked as a wildland firefighter, wilderness ranger and fire lookout. Best of the Net nominee x2. Notable Essay List for Best American Essays 2021, 2022 and 2023. @thejohnyohe www.johnyohe.weebly.com