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

Morning Cup

This morning, the warmth of tea drifted through the kitchen, soft as dawn. Leaves from the misty Dieng highlands—where Chaplin once wandered—unfurled in the pot, filling it with a deep golden hue. I set the steaming cup in my mother’s hands; she lifted it slowly, closing her eyes as she took a steady sip, letting the warmth seep through her. A quiet sigh, then her words, “Just right, perfect.” I caught my breath, watching a gentle glow settle in her gaze—a glow that wrapped us together, binding us to this quiet morning, and to every morning we’d ever shared.

Bahrulhadi Nursyamsul is a lover of the arts, drawn to literature and theater; at times exploring film and music, finding stories in every medium’s quiet depths.

A Shy Photo

Birthday Flowers