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

Tea in Bed

I didn’t bring two mugs of tea up to bed this morning. Just an Earl Grey for me. The quilt is humped up, almost person shaped, but it’s only pillows built up as a defense against my loneliness. Back in bed, I take a sip of tea. Feeling inspired, I exchange the mug for a notebook and pen from the bedside table, the one you chose for me, to match the rest of the bedroom furniture when we married. It has a pull-out shelf to accommodate an entire breakfast tray, but my lone mug rests easily among books and pens.

Unexpectedly widowed twelve years ago, Sarah Nicholson has recently set herself the target of writing a hundred, 100 words creative non-fiction pieces to create a memoir. Find Sarah at insearchoflostglitter.blogspot.com and on Twitter @reravelling.

Scale

Homesickness