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

Arriving five hours before my flight, suitcases overloaded, I find haphazard lines forming before the ticket desk opens. People face the wrong way, not conforming to the pre-set maze. Staff fume, rearranging and controlling us. A call goes out for business class. No one responds. The request is repeated. A stern, authoritarian woman points a finger at me, a White man. “Are you in business class?” I shake my head. The other passengers, all Black, look at me. “Any of us could be in business class,” I murmur to the woman. “Apparently not!” exclaims the young man next to me.

John Frame, a teacher, is from Wick, Scotland and has lived in Aberdeen, New York City, Columbus, Ohio, Qingdao, China, and Dakar, Senegal. jrframe.wixsite.com/website

Baby Fever

Panic Attack