Prose Poem Suite in Strange Pilgrims

House of Reunification Series by Jefferson Navicky

Hello fellow strange pilgrims, for today’s piece we cheated a little, but come on…we’re writers and readers, and sometimes I feel we are allowed our innocent indulgences. Namely, this time, instead of publishing just one of Jefferson’s flash pieces, we…couldn’t help ourselves, and had to publish the whole series. And once you read these, you’ll see why. It won’t take you long, you can also listen to his recording which comes in at under 10 minutes. But actually, it will probably take you many days, or weeks, because that’s how long it lived in our heads and hearts…to be honest…it’s still there. So, proceed with caution but also with wild literary abandon!

The Storm by Edvard Much (1893)

A Brutal Mischief chapbook

Jefferson’s chapbook A Brutal Mischief, is now available from Bottlecap Press.

What is it about rats that so disturbs us? Down which tunnel and into what hovel in our brains do they burrow? Rats are very good at hiding and one in twenty rats can detect landmines, know enough not to set them off.

At the start of March 2020, when the pandemic roared and I got indefinitely furloughed, we discovered a rat infestation around our chicken coop. It’s been six years since the pandemic when I wrote this chapbook. I wrote it and put it away. It’s like a time capsule from a quiet time of terror, which, despite the surrounding drama, ended up as largely a very fond memory, because I spent so much time at home in our cottage in the woods, tending the animals, working and working against the rats, building our defenses, and hanging out with my love.