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

Twelve

"Grab the fence," he said. So I did. Why? Because I was twelve and I didn't want to be called a chicken. When you're twelve and someone dares you to grab the electric fence you have to do it. That's just the rules. I got a pretty decent little zap and pretended it didn't hurt. Why? Because I was twelve and crying's only for girls. Then everyone grabbed the fence because they were twelve and they didn't want to be chickens. Next we all gripped the fence at the same time until we all screamed. Why? Because we were twelve.

Matt Yost is a teacher, author, and chronic renovation avoider who lives at the bottom of the bottom of the world. He likes writing twenty-five-word biographies.

Moving Flowers