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

Superstition

I pull the sodden mass of clothes from the washer and heave them into the dryer. Looking down into the empty drum, I'm not disappointed. A single penny shimmers against the steel interior. Sometimes it takes the dryer's motion to spill it from someone's pocket, heralding its presence by a rhythmic clanking, but it's always there. I see pennies everywhere, especially when I do laundry. Without exception, I think of my daughter with every penny I see. Is she tossing pennies into my life to make sure I never forget her? Or am I willing her into every coppery coin?

Sandra Hudson is a semi-retired nurse who dabbles in various art forms and enjoys writing. Her family is the core of her world!

Unprotected

The Old Trailer