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

Riverside Heights

She sat with sun-soaked legs dangling over the harbor wall. I was sailing in at five knots, leaning my back against the mast. She waved. The salt-kissed air blew her bangs aside, revealing the glow of her blushing face, and I saw her venture a smile. I raised my arm, waving back with only a single pump, just as I had seen shipmates do in ancient, grainy cinema reels, leaving my hand held high. She laughed all the way back to her Vespa and drove up the road out of the valley before disappearing into the silence of the afternoon.

Chris McNamee is a writer of prose, poetry, and flash fiction. He is a DJ, photographer, author, and lecturer. He likes cats and travel. Find Chris online at readchrismcnamee.com and on Instagram @seemac_

Coyote

Cheap Date