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

Date with Italy

The waiter uncorked the Chianti at the table. I was on a first date in a restaurant in Naples, Italy, my date an Italian judge with smiling eyes who lived alone, he said, when we met last week. As we waited for our pasta to come, I asked him if he was divorced or widowed. “Oh, I’m not divorced. My wife lives in her apartment in Florence.” Time halted to give me the chance to simply get up and leave. As I looked into my wine glass, I saw the next fifteen years of pure Italian passion and tainted disappointment.

Margie Haenseler  is an American expat living in Europe trying to capture adventure through her writing. Enjoys authentic espresso and walking to the town square.  mylittlemargie.com/ 

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