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

Troubadour

Man, what a tough crowd. I started out with some Elvis. I followed that with some Buddy Holly and Roy Orbison. Nothing. Finally, in the middle of a Beatles tune, my three-year-old daughter finally fell asleep. I tiptoed out of her room, put my uke down, grabbed a beer, and went outside on my deck to enjoy the beautiful, warm summer night. My next-door neighbor was also out, watering her plants. “Hey, I heard you playing,” she said. “Sounded good! You ever perform out in public? Like in bars or coffee houses?” “Nope,” I said. “I’m just a play-at-home dad.”  

Lee Hammerschmidt is a visual artist/writer/troubadour. He is the author of the short story collections A Hole Of My Own and It’s Noir O’clock Somewhere.

Like a Stone

Whodunit?