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

Visiting

I didn't cry when I folded Dad’s clothes into Bags For Life (irony not lost). Or when I made coffee for the efficient lady with the strong perfume who talked me through Probate. Or when I tried on his tweed jacket, shoulders jutting into the middle of next week, and found a grey hair. I didn’t cry as I waved Mum goodbye, smile a little weaker. But back home, when you brought me a cup of tea, silently put your arms around me, I was the brook, the ford, and the river. I was the whole of the North Sea.

Marie Little lives near fields and writes in the shed. Marie writes short fiction and poetry for adults and children and has a stationery habit. Find Marie at www.marielittlewords.co.uk and on Twitter @jamsaucer and @attielime.

Barbara&Lucille

Going Forward