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

Eternal Flame

I wake up sweating. Click on the ceiling fan. “You gonna leave it on high?” he asks from beneath four blankets. We argue. I concede. When his father officiated our ceremony, he made us repeat till death three times. Now, twenty-seven years later, we’re in another throe of death. I’m hot; he’s not. I turn down the fan, certain that with my mood swings he’ll be reminded of our vows at least three times tomorrow. We’ll go on like this until we’ve no more to give and our souls are free. I just hope his soul doesn’t leave without me.

Keturah Fountaine is an emerging writer based in Maryland. She was once a high school English teacher, but now she's chasing dreams.

The Lodger