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 Memory Rose

When I was four, I came from Glasgow to the idyllic Scottish countryside for my uncle’s wedding. Instead of hand-me-down clothes, I wore a new pink satin frock, my hair like sunshine. I danced along the village street and a couple called from their rose garden. Mr. Straw said I looked like a fairy princess and cut me a perfect pink rose to match my frock. Twenty years later, I visited the village and found Mr. Straw still in his wondrous garden. This time, he presented me with a whole bouquet of perfect roses because, he said, I remembered him.

Growing up in post-war Glasgow, Marya Miller has found loss and magic a theme that weaves its way through her stories, poems and books. Find Marya at maryamillerwriter.com.

Then

For a Moment