Nancy Owen Nelson

AUTUMN MUSINGS
on Multiple Sclerosis

My son sings
"A Whole
New World"
in the shower.
My friend holds
his grandson
against his body —
twelve hours born-¬
flesh of his flesh.
My diseased sister,
her throat frozen,
gasps and gulps
her gruel,
trying to forget
the taste of
tender morsels
of chicken
and squash,
the sweet tang
of chocolate.

On this bright
fall morning,
I gather leaves
in my two hands,
smell the crispness
of the fast wind
as it whips
about my face,
and gaze
at the colors
of autumn,
in awe
of beauty,
in awe of
creative death.

Nancy Owen Nelson has published articles in academic journals and anthologies and co-edited and edited a number of literary collections. She has a published poetry in the, What Wildness is this?, as well as in the South Dakota Review and Graffiti Rag. Her creative nonfiction has been accepted to three anthologies and one journal, Lalitamba.