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

A Small Step

I wait with bated breath when the head crowns; there’s no going back now. One last heave, one final push, and I admire the new life, the new heartbeat. All the tender moments spent conceiving, the months carrying, and the hours delivering seem worth it—even if they don’t show on your face yet. I cut the cord, wait for the cry, and hand her to you. If your beauty could be enhanced, then it could only be thus. I notice her feet, the first steps of a lifetime. Countless moments await us; joy, worry, pride, tears, contentment. I love you.

Kanwar Plaha lives in Sydney and loves doing the "write" thing. Otherwise, he just taps a keyboard and pushes a mouse and calls it "day job."


Silent Love