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

Bright Pink Pill

I saw the tiny bright pink pill slide from the pocket of his khaki pants and onto his seat, then drop to the floor next to his desk. He was already high. I watched him take a quiz on a book he told the class was so stupid, he never read it. Little beads of sweat popped up on his freckled nose. His knee bounced and he dug his pencil into the paper. He didn’t know that tiny bright pink pill had fallen. Suddenly, the bell rang. I didn’t know what he would do. I didn’t know what to do.

Kelsey Francis is a writer and English teacher living in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. Find Kelsey on Twitter and Instagram @ADK_Kelsey.

Lilies

Spooked