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

Simply

After I'd eaten breakfast, I went outside. It was cool, the sun earnest but dew still dampening the grass. At the top of the driveway, where no tree shadowed me, I sat down, warming the backs of my legs on the concrete. I rolled my palms around on the rough surface, and watched the fat black ants march by, waving their tiny antennae. As the air warmed I wandered to the garage's corner, petted the plump downy leaves of some unnamed weed, careful of each leaf's sharp, spiny tips. When did I forget how to simply be in the world?

Mary Ann Honaker is the author of Becoming Persephone (Third Lung Press, 2019). She lives in Beaver, West Virginia. Find Mary Ann at maryannhonaker.wordpress.com, on Facebook, and on Twitter @MaryAnnHonaker1.

The Layoff

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