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

The Ambulance

Denyse put her hand over mine. We were at the crowded deli, waiting for our smoked-meat sandwiches. “Sheila,” she said, looking worried. “Are you feeling ok?” “Nothing, just a headache,” but this headache roared. I drew my hand away, rolled my eyes around and felt a shaking in my ears. Denyse, a mother of five, stood up. She rushed around the counter and grabbed a phone. “Send an ambulance,” she said. “My friend is having seizures.” At the sound of the siren, I shut my eyes as the room spun around me. She took my arm and guided me toward the door.

Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos is a novelist, non-fiction writer, journalist, and author of Saris on Scooters: How Microcredit is Changing Village India, shortlisted for the Canadian National Business Book Award. Find Sheila at microcreditwomenindia.com.

piano poetry

Under the Boardwalk