"The Connoisseur" by Cat Ingrid Leeches
"The Connoisseur" by Cat Ingrid Leeches
A hybrid, fairytale-like work in which narrative, gender, and selfhood scurry and wriggle like insects under an overturned log. The Connoisseur whispers and shrieks its prophecies, dotted with symbols and secrets. 21 pages. Hand-stitched. Letterpressed cover.
Flood waters swirl around my hands and knees. My lips form a soft O. A swarm of cockroaches (an ancient and noble species, from which EYE am descended) pours forth from my mouth. They drip infectious agents into the water, polluting our bodies, we are stuck to this mattress for all eternity, your cock still inside me. It is like a trapped animal, it thrashes and bites me, and you whisper, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, but you can’t control the damn thing. It has abandoned you.
Cat Ingrid Leeches is a writer, parent, and adjunct living in East Dallas, Texas. Their work has been published in Adroit, Hayden's Ferry Review, Denver Quarterly, and elsewhere. They have a cat named Dirtbike.