High Horse

My novel Daytona Teddy Riggs is a deep dive into the sport of strongman. Teddy, the narrator, is singularly focused on winning the World’s Strongest Man competition. As his mental state begins to unravel, his fixation only intensifies. He continues his pursuit of glory even as the ramifications of his increasingly unstable behavior bear down on him.

I’ve long been fascinated with the niche subculture of strongman. I follow the top competitors closely, and one thing they all share is an all-consuming obsession with getting stronger. This obsession dictates what they eat, when they sleep, who they marry, and just about everything else. I have a great admiration for the dedication they show to their craft. So inspired I am by these giant men that I felt the need to put my feelings into verse. – Drew Buxton

Force-Feed

A dozen eggs, a pound of bacon,
three slices of French toast,
orange juice. That’s meal one,
and meal two
is just a couple hours later:
spaghetti and meatballs,
rice, chicken stock,
and an orange.

It’s chewing and swallowing,
chewing and swallowing.
Hafþór feels like a cow,
grazing all day.

It’s harder than the training,
but you can do as many Viking press
sets as you want—if you’re not
eating at least a gram of protein
for every pound of bodyweight,

you won’t make gains.

Hafþór will do anything for gains. 
He would eat anything.
He would eat shit
if it made him stronger,
if it helped him—

in the World’s Strongest Man finals,
in the last event, when his arms
and his back are on fire—
take the last keg,
the 60-kilogram keg,
and send it 

into orbit. 

Get It Up

Eddie Hall knows gimmick events
don’t belong
at World’s Strongest Man.

Refrigerator races and steeple chases
are added for 
the CBS audience. 

But Eddie knows the competitors are
enough.

They’re the strongest men
in the world, the strongest men
in history.

They just need to move huge weights
from one place
to another.

Eddie takes impossible weights,
puts air underneath them.

He takes a barbell loaded with over half a ton
and looks to the sky.
He pulls until the veins bulge
from his forehead, and blood pours
from his nose.

He drags it up his shins and tears them open
and thinks about his mom. He thinks about her
working 9 to 5, then 5 to 10,
then falling asleep
with her uniform still on.

He imagines she’s under a car,
trapped,
and he’s lifting it,
pulling the weight off her.

Drew Buxton is a writer from San Antonio, Texas. His short story collection So Much Heart won the 2024 Sergio Troncoso Award for First Book of Fiction. His work has been featured in Southwest Review, Joyland, The Drift, and Vice among other publications. His debut novel Daytona Teddy Riggs will be published by Hub City Press in the fall. Find him at drewbuxton.com