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

Roundabout Rage

I made two mistakes within minutes of each other. The first one minor: a driving error. I waved, said “Sorry,” smiled out the window, and that’s when I noticed the words he was screaming. Ugliness made uglier by the depths of his rage, cartoon anger, incandescent with hate. “Let’s laugh,” said my wife. “That will teach him.” So belly laugh we did. Thought we would show him. Two women guffawing in the car behind: a rear mirror view, to teach him his blind spots.  It was the moment our cars paralleled at the next roundabout, I “found-out-about” my  second mistake.

Kate Simblet social works by day, plays with words by night. Lives in Brighton, loves the sea. Find Kate on Twitter @KateSimblet.

How You Know

Helpless