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

Twitching

It’s just a guide on a dusty shelf with other bird books in Dad’s study. My Mum is getting shorter so I pull it down and look up “red-backed shrike” in the index. On page 42 there is a delicate watercolour of a grey-blue and brown male, sharp beak, vicious reputation. There are only a few breeding pairs left in Britain. I notice the page is well thumbed and I’m about to say so, but she’s already tearing up. “I saw him in the garden yesterday,” she says with conviction, looking as if I should know what she’s talking about.

Julia Ruth Smith is a teacher who lives by the sea. She's emotional, exaggerated, and has been published in several journals. Find Julia on Twitter @JuliaRuthSmith1.

Ceremony

At Oldman River