SCINTILLA
One of the reasons I fell in love
with my husband is every once
in a while, he uses a word I read
somewhere, but I had never heard
out loud.
It wasn’t I was so impressed with
his vocabulary as I was impressed
that I felt he was very ordinarily
valiant in trying to rescue these
words, those that were harder to
say, or had more nuanced meaning
or because it often took effort to
think of them, and through no
fault of their own, had lost their
way and were fading into
obsolescence.
Never was he boastful about this
gallantry, nor did he overthink it,
he just in no extraordinary way
hunted momentarily and rather
than offering his handkerchief
as he often did, he would instead
gently pull out a salvaged word
and place it in that perfect
moment before sunset
so we could hear it aloud
together, one more time.
—from Rattle #78, Winter 2022
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Jeanne Yu: “I write to make sense of life in this world … and to make sure I am paying attention to the little things that matter as well as the big things, because I have come to know they are all connected. I’m an engineer, mom, and environmentalist, every day trying my best—some days are harder than others—to live from a place of my hope for the world.”
