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

Water, Vapor

I’m two, maybe three, wearing a baggy diaper and standing in shin-deep puddle water. Leah’s here too, all pigtails and chubby legs and chubby cheeks. As I stomp my feet, warm water splashes Leah’s legs and she giggles, so I put my hands on her hands and we dance. Mom’s crouched beside us, cooing. Dad’s holding up a camera. I keep stomping and Leah does, too, and Mom and Dad are laughing and water is warm and life is fun, and this is when it happens—when I believe, for the very first time, that this feeling will never go away.

Brian Benson grew up in a Wisconsin town with three bars and no stoplights. He now lives, writes, and teaches in Portland, Oregon. Find Brian at brianbensonwrites.com, on Twitter @MrBrianBenson, and on Instagram @misterbrianbenson.

Prankster

The Feed