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 and founding reader bobbi lerman; May READERS Darcy alsop, PRERNA BAROOAH, AMITA BASU, Sarina Caragan, Antony Püttschneider, and Elisa Rivera; and May Editorial intern sienna lew. 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

Anointment Day

We got a late cab to our final destination after nine months of pandemic lockdown and isolation overseas. A total of seventeen hours of flight over three days found us half broken and drained at our doorstep. Our house looked strange. Darcey, my wife, shouted from the restroom, “It is broken, Doug, you have to do something here now.” Okay darling, but please don't engage the system while I go check the connection outside. I rushed into the drainage area, laid down, opened the pipe, turned the valve, and then … a full-body baptism and anointing happened. She had flushed.

Patrice Assiongbon Sowanou is a journalist reporter and writer. He advocates for freedom of speech for underrepresented communities. Find Patrice at khalasjournalism.wixsite.com/my-site and on Twitter @SowanouPatrice.

Never Before

Dolce Far Niente