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

Rent

Dong dong. I get up from the bed, put on my pants, trip over the coffee table, and open the door, revealing the landlord in her pajamas. She bites her cigarette, her figure framed by her curly hair. "Next week, if you don't pay the rent, you'll have to leave." She pushes my shoulder with her finger. I want to plead for mercy but I don’t dare, I have been here for too long. I hold the edge of my shirt and I begin to contemplate whether to sleep in the Market Park, Coast Square, or the Central Subway Station.

Wenna Li is a college student.

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