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 Cigar

Nothing can equal the mellow and melodious jolt of accomplishment which springs forth from five minutes of sitting under the sun of an early spring afternoon and smoking a cigar which one has grown from seed. Relax there among the caresses of warm, bright rays and warmer blue smoke. Puff and dream and remember the loving hours of planting, watering, nurturing, harvesting, drying, curing, cutting, rolling, and wrapping. Close your eyes. What? A small fire has sprung up halfway down the stalk of the cigar! Pat it out! Pat it out! The burn of hot ashes on your shirt front!

Jim DeFilippi is a Salem, Massachusetts, Carrot Cake Writer who has been growing tobacco and rolling cigars for many years. Find Jim online at Brown Fedora Books and his Amazon author page.

Night Owl

Pay It Forward