Poetry: Selections From Drew Buxton

The Nature Boy Lands in a Helicopter

Ric Flair once claimed

he’s slept with 10,000

women, but I did

the math, and it just

doesn’t seem possible.

It must be mentioned

that Ric is prone

to exaggeration, but

don’t say he’s full of shit.

Who could forget

the Great American Bash

when he landed in the

Greensboro Coliseum

in a helicopter and they

rolled out a red carpet

to the ring? He really

did that, and you can

watch it online.

There are comments

from just the other day,

saying “Can you

believe this shit?”

A few of them say

they were there

that night

in Greensboro.

It was more than

they’d seen.

 

Night In

We were supposed to go out for Thai,

go to a reading, but it was Friday,

and SmackDown was coming on,

and there was a Stouffer’s lasagna

in the freezer.

Smackdown is always there

for us after a long week. Claire wonders

out loud what Roman Reigns,

the Head of the Table, will have to say

after Sami hit him in the back

with a chair last week at the Royal

Rumble.

You can make garlic bread

with Nature’s Own, garlic powder,

and butter. We started drinking because

we didn’t have to drive, and Black Box

holds four bottles of Malbec in one

Bag.

Roman arrived in a Denali

and was let out by his driver. They

said he would speak, but we knew

we’d have to wait. Most people

don’t have the patience to make

Stouffer’s in the oven, but it makes

all the difference.

When Roman got to the ring,

we’d had several glasses, but the bag

stayed heavy. He demanded to be

acknowledged as the Head of the Table,

but Claire wouldn’t. Not after what

he did to Sami. All Sami wanted

was to be a part of the Bloodline

and Roman ordered him to hit Kevin,

his best friend since childhood,

while he was handcuffed to the ropes,

but he didn’t,

knowing what

 

was coming.

Drew Buxton is a writer from Texas. His short story collection So Much Heart won the Texas Institute of Letters' 2024 Sergio Troncoso Award for Best First Book of Fiction. His work has been featured or is forthcoming in SARKA, The Drift, Joyland, Archway Editions Journal, Electric Literature, and Vice among other publications.