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

Off the Menu

The oncology nurse had a list and was lecturing us about the foods that chemotherapy was about to take off the menu. Medium rare steak. Runny egg yolks. Blue cheese. “You’ve got to protect your immune system at all costs.” I held my husband’s hand tightly, replanning meals in my head to pivot away from deliciousness and towards life-preservation. I always used to love cooking for us both. Now, no more joy, just caution. I wish they’d ripped up that list and told us, “Seriously, just go home and eat anything that you like. It’s going to kill you anyway.”

Steph Lay writes strange and haunting stories from life's darker edges. She shares tales about the eerie side of Milton Keynes on her blog cityofsecrets.blog. Instagram: @stephanie.lay X: @stephanielay

Take No Chances

Birthday Cake