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

Repulsive

I start picking, and I’m picking, leaning in close, climbing the sink, eye-to-eye with myself. This is essential, this is cleansing, this is art. This is forgiving my debt, restocking the fridge, vacuuming the stale hair off the floor. I think that my skin-picking has global implications. I think it’s helping people in other hemispheres understand the futility of war and the absurdity of God. I am going to be okay. Everything is fine. I step back and look at my face, red and raw. It occurs to me that I might be the most repulsive creature that ever lived.

Holly Fontanetta is a curious character with ideas that glitter and burn. She lives in southern California with her cat. Find Holly on Twitter and Instagram @hollyfontanetta.

Koimētērion

Rookie Mistake