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

This Is the Way?

In my fourth of eight weeks in Europe, I was still a stranger in a strange land. My trusty map was supposed to lead me down a tree-lined path towards the museum, but my addled sense of direction could easily lead me to Fresno. A pair of walkers approached from the opposite direction, leaving me 500 meters to craft a grammatically-perfect question regarding my navigation. I asked, “Ist das der Weg zum Museum?” Her fumbled German response lived within a British lilt, so I alleviated her stress, telling her I was an American. “Thank goodness. Yes, it’s that way.” “Danke.”

Jay Heltzer doesn't remember much German anymore, and is writing microfiction and his first novel (in English) near Washington, D.C. Find Jay on Twitter @JayHeltzer.

Faith Healing

California Walnuts