Sherwin Tjia is a Montreal-based poet, painter and illustrator. He is the author of Gentle Fictions, Pedigree Girls, The Hipless Boy, The World is a Heartbreaker, You Are a Cat! and the sequel You Are a Cat in the Zombie Apocalypse! The World is a Heartbreaker was a finalist for the A.M. Klein Poetry Award. The Hipless Boy was a finalist for the Doug Wright Award and also nominated for four Ignatz Awards. In his spare time, he organizes slowdance nights, love-letter reading open mics, crowd karaoke singalongs and “adult” spelling bees (which you can experience in the OctoberFEST LAB; go to wordfest.com for the complete schedule).

You Are A Kitten

You’re a brand new kitten! You don’t even have a name yet. Well, you do  –  but it’s not very nice. The couple that own you fight all the time. So much so that to hurt the other person, one of them stuffs you in a plastic bag and flings you into the canal! As the bag begins to fill with water colder than you’ve ever experienced, a wild panic grips you! The water is already up over your paws, and the only warm thing you have to cling to is the memory of your mother’s tongue licking the back of your head.

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