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

The Seedkeeper

It was a long walk to the coast, but it would be my last chance. In the setting autumn sunlight, the dried husk of the wildflower almost looked to me like a summer bloom. The brown petals turned to dust in the milky breeze, but clasped safely in my fist was something vibrating with life and possibility. I had done this every year, but this time, the seeds would be planted much farther away from their mothers. It was a habit. No, an impulse. To keep a seed is to keep living. A new home still needs a garden.

Mickey Gast is a writer who gardens and a gardener who writes. You can find Mickey’s plant-keeping journal on GreenwithPurpose.com and on Instagram @greenwithpurpose.

Second Date

Newborn Resolve