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

Swipe Wrong

The rain would make being agile difficult. That would be limited as it was. She waited at the table as agreed, unable to believe they were doing this. Here she was, waiting for the guy she swiped right on, who responded in kind. Neither believed an app existed for the non-able-bodied starving for physical contact. Yet here she was in her wheelchair, wearing a skirt and crotchless panties for ease of access. Ridiculous. Embarrassing. Desperate, and too late, because as she pulled up their chat to cancel, a shadow fell over her screen. “Hi,” he said. Too late, all right.

Erica Sharlette is of West Indian and Asian descent. London-born, Sharlette uses writing as an escape from the daily battle of seventeen chronic, degenerative illnesses. Find Erica on Facebook and Instagram @EricaSharlettesWords and on Twitter @ESsWords.

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