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

Magic

My friend Gina force-feeds me crackers while I’m in hysterics, riding the climax of a bad mushroom trip. Banging down our door is the man I’ve been hooking up with. He’s parked my Subaru on the grass, passenger door ajar. I use the word “man” because he is 36 and I am 21. I use the word “banging” because we are hiding from him and what he might do if he gets inside. I use the word “ajar” because I jumped out and didn’t look back. Gina checks the porch and I sit, laughing harder than I’ve ever laughed before.

Tayler Hanxi Bunge is a queer, adopted Chinese-American writer digital nomading all over the place with roots in LA, Denver, and Philadelphia. Find Tayler at taylerbunge.com.


City Snow

Oil