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Facing One’s Weakness


11.27.11 Posted in today's words by

Helen Losse is the author of 2 full-length poetry books, Seriously Dangerous (Main Street Rag, 2011)Better With Friends (Rank Stranger Press, 2009), and 2 chapbooks. She has recent poetry publications in Main Street Rag, Iodine Poetry Review, Wild Goose Poetry Review, The Pedestal Magazine, ken*again, Referential Magazineand Georgann Eubanks’ Literary Trails of the North Carolina PiedmontShe lives in Winston-Salem NC and is the poetry editor for The Dead Mule School of Southern LiteratureHelen’s most recent poem to appear here was Away. She is an avid NASCAR fan and a fan of Kyle Busch in particular.


Facing One’s Weakness
–for Kyle Busch
By Helen Losse

Yesterday the mother in me
wanted to kiss your young cheek
to remove your pain–

though I know you deserve to
pay the price for your own mistake
and learn the lesson you need.

Have you learned it? And was it
strength or sadness I saw in you,
as you sat atop the #18 pit box?

Maybe it was both. I’m certain it was
sobriety. Everyone watching you on
camera knew what it means to “lose it,”
but not everyone wants to forgive.

Behind you stood the strength of God
in a man who shielded you from un-
answerable questions: the ones reporters

stupidly ask before NASCAR has fully
spoken & you are ready to consider your
answers. I know that growing to maturity

involves facing how weak we really are.
Joe Gibbs knows this, too. He knows,
often we learn life’s lessons in pain,

but not everyone’s pain is televised
from Texas Motor Speedway–
where sunglasses probably served you
as more than a shield from the sun.





3 Responses to “Facing One’s Weakness”

  1. Kevin says:

    nice poem but Kyle Bush fan???
    Joe Gibbs is the best thing about Kyle, he must have some hidden quality most of us can not see.

  2. Susan Ward says:

    It is good to see the heart of the poet poured out for an individual! It is “like fire in her bones” which must be expressed. Great job!

  3. As always, you nailed it. What a deeply embedded sense of Kyle’s reality at that moment. wow

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