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

There He Is

I sway back and forth anxiously while keeping my eyes riveted to the scene unfolding on our 65-inch TV. My hands are clasped tightly under my chin in prayer as the magic of technology displays a miracle evolving. With one final push, he makes his entrance, and the doctor lifts him like an offering to the Gods. My trembling voice intertwines with his cries, and I murmur there he is as tears streak down my cheeks. The nurse places him on my daughter’s bare chest. Exhaustion engulfs her body, yet she is radiant with love. My grandson is finally here.

Kim Kelly Stamp is a writer, essayist, and espresso enthusiast who travels the country with her wife in a 21-foot Teardrop Trailer. linktr.ee/kimkellystamp Instagram and Twitter: @KimKellyWrites 

Psalm 24

Aftermath