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

Blank Space

I was scrubbing dried toothpaste from the sink when my inner monologue was interrupted by a yelp from my husband downstairs. I began to fill the space of silence that followed: We were being robbed. My husband fell. Our janky oven caught fire. Our cat Courduroy died. “What is happening?” I yelled, though my concern was not enough to unglue my feet from their place. I didn’t realize how truly terrible his response could be until I heard him say it out loud. “I got it! Today’s Wordle!” — the one that, earlier in the day, I had failed to solve.

Cris Puccia Van Grol is a lifelong creative and kitchen comedian. She performs daily in Rochester, New York, for an obliged audience of three.

What is X?

Mother Tongue