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

Her

“If both of us were hangin’ off the side of a mountain, you’d try to save her first.” Her comes out of my mother's mouth like it’s something foul. But her is my mother’s oldest sister. Her stepped up when my mother gave birth to me at fourteen. Her married a Southern gentleman, who’s been moonlighting as my father figure for thirty-seven years. Her is the reason for my fondest childhood memories. Her raised me and my cousins like we were siblings. “I would try to save both of you.” Logically. “No… you’re s’posed to save me. I’m your mother.”

Ebony Morman is a journalist, content writer, and storyteller whose work spans short fiction, flash, and poetry. She currently lives in North Carolina.

Lying to You