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

I'm With Stupid

Here’s how stupid my subconscious is: As I stood at shore’s edge along the coast of Newfoundland, taking photos of an island in choppy seas, the wind blew my hat off my head. The subconscious has its own measure of material value and decided to drop the camera and grab the hat, which like most ball-cap hats, had been in need of a wash for years. Luckily, my conscious measure of material value quickly sprang into action, alerting my foot just in time to break the camera’s fall. But I came within a nano-second of kicking it into the sea.

Richard LeBlond is a retired biologist living in North Carolina. His essays and photographs have appeared in numerous US and international journals.

First Solo Circuit

Spring Cleaning