The Butterfly Effect

Andy Jackson

“Throwing a small stone may have some influence on the movement of the sun.”
- Grigore C Moisil, Determinism si inlantuire, 1940

Slight variations can lead to little deviations
Slight variations can lead to fitful deviations
Slight variations can lead to phrasal deviations
Slight vibrations can lead to facial deformation
Light valuations can lead to fiscal declination
Light vilification can lead to futile declarations
Slight vacillation can lead to future domination
Rights violations can lead to fateful deregulation
Rights vitiation can lead to racial segregation
Rights vandalisation can lead to feudal decimation 
Slight variations can lead to fatal devastation
Slight variations can lead to final damnation.

The Science

This poem is inspired by 20th Century mathematician and meteorologist Edward Norton Lorenz, and the theory that the beating of a pair of butterfly wings could cause perturbations in weather systems that could accumulate to effect major changes in a weather system. His modelling of such instances has been used to support Chaos Theory, which argues that minor changes in a system can lead to drastic and disproportionate changes over time. The poem begins innocuously but introduces subtle changes in each line, turning the poem into a prediction of chaos arrived at by small degrees over time.

The Poet

Andy Jackson is the author of four collections of poetry including The Saints Are Coming! (Blue Diode, 2020) and Games Night (Red Squirrel Press, 2023). He is the editor/co-editor of a dozen poetry anthologies including Scotia Extremis with the late Brian Johnstone (Luath, 2019). He co-edits the magazine Poetry Scotland with Judith Taylor and also coordinates a number of online poetry projects including Otwituaries, The Lonely Funeral, New Boots and Pantisocracies, and Project Abeona. His poetry has been widely published in magazines and anthologies. www.andyjacksonpoet.co.uk

Next poem: Weeds and Stars by Lisa Rosenberg