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

Evening Rounds

Shielded in protective gear and armed with stats, I felt unprepared. My patient's oxygen levels were stable, yet he hunched over the edge of the bed, laboring to breathe. His eyes searched mine for answers. I told him he was improving. "You're lying!" he accused. He rose, straining the distance hospital umbilical cords would allow. He pulled me into a desperate embrace, his non-rebreather pressing into my chest, fingers clinging to my back. He was drowning and taking me with him. Fear kept us entangled until I broke and told him things would be better by morning. I was wrong.

Nina Miller is a physician, fencer, wife and mother of two. A graduate of Cornell University and NYU Med, she currently resides in New York. Find Nina online at www.ninamillerwrites.com.

Sycamore

Perspective