Sunday, August 01, 2021

D IS FOR DELTA

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.