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

Jay

“How are you?” She’s walking friendly toward me in a Walmart-blue vest. I “hello” back. “Oh, I’m actually talking to the blue jay,” she says, nodding toward a sorry parking-lot tree. “They’ll get angry with you,” I say. She disagrees. “When they get loud, they’re actually calling all the little birds to safety.” I doubt this, doubt it hard. I’ve been taught that jays are jerks and I’m a person who clings stubborn to a fact. Then I realize I can let myself believe her, should let myself, and I choose her blue jay, protector, before walking into the store. 

Susanna Baird lives in Salem, waiting to be swayed. Website: susannabaird.com Twitter: @susannabaird Instagram: @susanna.baird

Dress Blues

Blurt