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

Candy Store

If you’re doing it right, leaving therapy is like getting out of school on Friday. Liberation! Accomplishment! Unburdened, I float down the narrow, dark hallway past the cheap, hollow doors to the droning of the white noise machines. I exit, embraced by sunlight, knowing I’ve earned it. “PULL to Open” instructs the Marlboro Man, and sunlight is supplanted by sticky floors and the triggering scent of raw dependence. Little bottles stand uniformly for the inspection — colorful labels appearing to jostle for position. One blueberry, one cherry, one vanilla. Wait, two blueberry. A quick one now and off to work, cured.

David Gauthier has been getting serious about his writing for about 30 years now. He spends most of his time in his Salem, Massachusetts backyard, musing.


Frozen

Sir?