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

Different Class

My first day came two weeks in. They had already shaken off their summer laze by the time I was being introduced, wearing hand-me-downs from someone else’s long time ago. My coke-bottle glasses had broken days before this, and my plan was to hide their existence forever. From what my eyes could see, they were all beautiful. “Class! Let’s all show her a very warm welcome!” He gestured for me to find a seat. As I walked down the row, he clapped alone as they lobbed books or stretched crossed feet onto empty desks. I could smell their new clothes.

Donna Woods is a Yankee that moved down south and accidentally started a cat farm, trading a high-paced security career for the slower-paced south. Did she mention the cats?

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