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

Graduation 2021

My early evening walk took me toward the Hubert Humphrey Middle School. As I approached, I realized the parking lot was full. I heard a loudspeaker announcing names. Ah, I thought, graduation in the stadium. I smiled, remembering when my daughters graduated from Humphrey Middle School. I soon discovered I was wrong. Cars were circling the building. Teachers, gathered by the east door, applauded when the principal read a youngster’s name and someone handed the student their diploma. Sometimes the near-by drivers honked their horns. A drive-by graduation. Covid was still setting school rules. The Happy Warrior must be sad.

Wilda Morris, a widely-published poet, is workshop chair for Poets & Patrons of Chicago. Her latest book is "Pequod Poems: Gamming with Moby-Dick." Find Wilda online at wildamorris.blogpost.com.

Squashed

Worst Day