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

Smart?

Climb into the car with my soon-to-be-ex a few tense weeks into divorce. I swallow against our lack of words as we drive to pick up his car from the garage; pull onto the highway, the silence like staples piercing my skin. Desperate, I tell Alexa, “Play some music.” Truth Hurts by Lizzo comes on. Eyes wide, I mumble some excuse about him not liking Lizzo. Push skip. Lizzo is replaced by Gayle: abcdeFU. He shifts. I cough, eyes wide. Push skip. Taylor Swift, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Sweating. Skip. Beyonce, Single Ladies. I give up.

Betsy Ellor thinks Alexa knows her a little too well. Her debut picture book My Dog is NOT a Scientist comes out Spring of 2023. Find Betsy at www.wordsunboundstudio.com, on Twitter @bewordsunbound, and on Instagram @betsy_ellor_words_unbound.

Parkway Bridge

I Don't Care.