by Mary K O'Melveny
In math, Delta means change.
An isosceles triangle points the way
to changes in quantity:
more sick
more hospital beds
more ventilators
more dead
more masks
more six foot limits:
apart from each other
down in the ground.
Changes as in differences in.
As in:
yesterday there was reason to hope
last week we went to a concert
the airport was full of tourists
As in:
the rate of change is significant:
red lines rise on graphs
there are no lines of people seeking vaccines
there are now some lines but not enough.
Changes as in variables.
As in:
yesterday I met you at a party
today I am at the doctor’s office
tomorrow my family will hold a zoom remembrance.
In science, Delta means a sometimes triangular mass of sediment.
As in:
silt and sand lodged in a river’s mouth
spit into the sea or a lake or a plain
as in Mississippi or Okavango or Kalahari
tides and waves create sandbars and dendritic silt
as in the Nile or the Ganges
estuaries of brackish water form at the confluence of sea and river
as in China’s Yellow River.
Some Deltas become abandoned
the rivers leave discard their channels dry up
that too denotes movement change.
That change is called avulsion:
As in:
the sudden separation of mass from one place to another
the sudden separation of reason from the brain
the sudden movement from reality to fantasy.
Delta can be a girl’s name:
books of baby names call it appealing chic unique
fit for a child of grace and distinction.
This too will change.
Mary K O'Melveny is a recently retired labor rights attorney who lives in Washington DC and Woodstock NY. Her work has appeared in various print and on-line journals. Her first poetry chapbook A Woman of a Certain Age is available from Finishing Line Press. Mary’s poetry collection Merging Star Hypotheses was published by Finishing Line Press in January, 2020.
