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 and founding reader bobbi lerman; March READERS isabelle B.L, Sara Bednark, Amanda Callais, Ian Li, Nia Mahmud, April Mccloud, Nina Miller, and Clorissa Phillips; and March Editorial intern Kate meen. 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

Life Drawing

I walked into the studio early to find an undressed model. Which was odd. When they weren’t posing, models wore robes. I propped my sketchpad on an easel. On the platform, the model raised his arms and haloed them like a hairy helix, then lowered into a squat. “Do you find this shape interesting?” he asked, facing me with his arms out in front. “Sure,” I said, although I didn’t. He nodded, went to a corner to grab his bag, put on his clothes, and left. I wondered who the naked man was, but no one else had seen him.

Tina Barry is a poet and short-form writer who grew up in New Jersey, and no, she didn’t live near a mall. TinaBarryWriter.com Facebook: Tina.Barry.5 

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