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

Quilt

The wasp buzzed in the winter window. How did it get in? Everyone stared at each other. Everyone stared at me. My body exhausted from flu and frozen copper, shut-off heat and bubble-wrapped walls, all layered on disability like syrup. We took the heaters out of the central room we huddled in. We needed to thaw the kitchen ceiling anyway, before bathtub pipes busted through. Bonus if that put the wasp to sleep. A few days later, the buzz rose. I was too tired to save it. Its voice quieted and did not return. I still haven't found the body.

River (they/them) lives in the US in a state where weather is fickle and power companies are flush. 

Before Sunrise

Keep Breathing