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

Joint?

“That looks like a joint,” I say. “Yup,” she says. It’s been a year since he died, and I haven’t moved a single item on his desk. She needs furniture, so I offer her his desk and chair, along with other items. As I clean the desk, I am not shocked to find the joint, just disappointed. And a little embarrassed. Honestly, who cares these days? It’s illegal in this state, but who’s coming after me for having the butt end of a year-old joint in the house? And why did he feel he had to hide it from me?

Gwenette Gaddis is a southern writer with influences from Tennessee, Indiana, Oregon, Florida, and Kentucky. She’s writing a novel and a collection of short stories.

Family Therapy

Years