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

Shavasana

Yoga. First day. Last twenty minutes. Lie down flat on your back, arms close to your body, legs naturally apart, comfortable, the instructor said. Eyes closed, relax your body, rest your mind. Let no thought linger. Feel the void. Feel it, I did. Creeping up on me, slow and steady. Inhale. Exhale. Every cell in my body vibrated with panic. Move! I had to move, else my soul would untether itself from my body, and ascend! So, like a bandaid ripped off, I bolted up and out, ignoring the instructor saying, there’s still fifteen minutes left. I never went back.

Mugdhaa Ranade wakes up every day hoping to find dry leaves to crunch underfoot, and stray cats to pet. Find her online on Twitter @swxchhxnd.

Opening Night

Refusal