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

Make a Wish

My son picks a dandelion, standing head-and-shoulders proud above the grass around it, and blows. “I want to be a dinosaur,” he says. I think about the things I want: meadows of sun-drenched clouds, taut blue skies, the smell and swell of the sea, to share a meal with friends far-flung and long not-seen, quiet, time to write, time to myself, a corner of happiness. My son stomps, roars. “Look, Mummy! I’m a dinosaur!” Maybe it’s that easy. Maybe all I need to do is make a wish. Believe. I reach down, pick a dandelion, close my eyes, and blow.

Laura Besley is the author of three collections of short fiction: (Un)Natural Elements, 100neHundred and The Almost Mothers. Find her on Twitter @laurabesley.

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