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

Life Drawing

I walked into the studio early to find an undressed model. Which was odd. When they weren’t posing, models wore robes. I propped my sketchpad on an easel. On the platform, the model raised his arms and haloed them like a hairy helix, then lowered into a squat. “Do you find this shape interesting?” he asked, facing me with his arms out in front. “Sure,” I said, although I didn’t. He nodded, went to a corner to grab his bag, put on his clothes, and left. I wondered who the naked man was, but no one else had seen him.

Tina Barry is a poet and short-form writer who grew up in New Jersey, and no, she didn’t live near a mall. TinaBarryWriter.com Facebook: Tina.Barry.5 

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