Delta

Like a river spreading out across its floodplain, my deltoid ligament spreads out across the middle of my foot. It keeps my leg joined in many ways to my foot, and so complex are its attachments that even the anatomists are not agreed on what its components are.

You can damage or hurt it by running downstairs, or landing on uneven surfaces, or dancing vigorously, and in many other ways. But the first two ways are the ways in which I hurt my deltoid, and the pain grew. And grew. It is no ordinary sprain, but something almost existential — for without the deltoid ligament, one cannot put one's best foot forward without some instability resulting.