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

Not-So-Fly Day

My left eyelid convulses, writhes, jitters like a rabbit’s twitching nose as it hops towards lettuce. As Mom tries but fails to aim the nozzle of the Kirkland water bottle into my corneas, my sweater is completely inundated. It turns a sympathetic shade of rich navy. The culprit of this fracas? A buzzing black dot that was visible ‘till it wasn’t. We try to fish the fly out of my eye— my tear glands are working overtime, you’d think they deserve a bonus. Three hours later in the taxi, I blink twice, and a shriveled speck slides onto my finger.

Sienna Lew is a high school sophomore from the Bay Area. She is an avid poet and cannot wait to publish more work soon!

Southern Porch

Not My Doctor