Five Minutes explores five minutes of a life in one hundred words. Five minutes is edited by Susanna Baird, with editorial support from managing editor Maria s. picone, newsletter editor kate meen, and founding reader bobbi lerman, plus our rotating team of guest readers, who you can meet in the latest newsletteR. Five Minutes was founded in October 2020, with the Salem (Mass.)-based writing group Carrot Cake Writers supplying the journal’s first pieces. We’d love to read your five. Submit here

A Reflection

I watch you chase after my girls, looking at least a decade younger than you are. You hand out bowls of strawberries and cream, wipe their mouths and dry their tears, so seemingly naturally. I watch you paint a childhood picture for your grandchildren, different from the one I remember. A second chance you say. But what about the first? The first was your chance, your chance with my life. But now, your second, with my girls’ lives. So I wipe my mouth and dry my tears. And hope with all hopes it will be a better chance this time.

Mother and wife, RP is a work in progress.

A REFLECTION was a finalist in Five Minutes’ 2022 Spring Contest: Second Chances. Congratulations, RP!

My Privilege

Nana's Balm