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

Saratoga

In under a minute, they rolled out the huge tent and covered the fallen horse. My son, grandson, and I had come to Saratoga for three years, always the last Friday of the season. When Bandito, my grandson’s choice, tripped into the railing, wooden lengths flew through the air like cheap, white plastic. The crowd was silent, the Big Board was posting the odds for the next race. We never heard a shot. We three left our seats to walk the grounds, in three different directions. We knew we’d never come back to Saratoga. We would never watch another horse race.

Jim DeFilippi is an eccentric, prolific American author and novelist. Please visit his website at jimdefilippi.com. Jim is a Five Minutes Founding Contributor.


Rainbow

Resting