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

Brothers

The front yard of the Capitol Hill row house was graced only by a cherry tree, its trunk twisted by time. A hand-stenciled sign planted beside the tree read, We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was February 2017. The new presidency was in full swing; I felt unmoored, like I had been cast into an alternate reality. Pausing, I considered how deeply I wanted King’s sentiment to take root in our collective conscience. I studied the cherry, thick with growth. Among the crowded branches I counted six nests.

Amanda Gibson lives and writes in Annapolis. She spends as much time as possible outdoors and always chooses a sunny spot.

Birthday Party

The Nurturer