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

Pandemic Spree

Late Saturday afternoon, picked up my pills from the pharmacy a block away. That's all I can walk now. Been shopping there for 16 years. Someone usually recognizes me and says hello. They’re much friendlier than at the supermarket where I drive, partly to keep the car battery charged. No one knows or greets me there. Today at the pharmacy I splurged and bought a new mask, washable and reusable. Maybe it will fit snugly despite my hearing aids, glasses, and ears that stick out. Also bought a new knee support. Too late now, at eighty-seven, for a new knee. 

Claire Helman lives in Montreal, Quebec, with her cat, Mr. Dean.

Newborn Resolve

Sunbabies