Jeanne Yu

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 impressedthat 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 tothink 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 ratherthan 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 aloudtogether, 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.”

Related* “Among the Baby Bok Choy” by Jeanne Yu * “Equations of the Heart” by Jeanne Cook * “Some Degree of Shameful Relief” by M. Jeanne Skvarla