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

One Street

We walked Mission Street, a film reel of landmarked memories illuminated by each car's passing headlights. The donut shop, when our kisses still tasted like sugar. The cafe, where I got mad but he looked at me, childlike, with no socks and unbrushed teeth. The Jersey Mike’s, after he insisted real love could withstand anything, and I thought he meant ours. The realization hit: one street, barely a mile long. I wondered if this was as far as we would go. “Should I take you home?” he asked. My heart sat heavy. I wished we could walk this street forever.

Jasmine Desai is an aspiring writer and longtime lover girl living in California. She writes about all types of love, and occasionally heartbreak.

Big Bend, 1994