Just a Little Weight, by Caitlin Sutherland

Poetry, chapbook, 40 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Just a Little Weight is a raw and tender elegy for a beloved cat whose death reshapes everything that follows. Through spare, intimate poems, Caitlin Sutherland traces the slow unraveling of ordinary life in the wake of unbearable loss, creating a home in quiet spaces where memory becomes both a comfort and a wound. The collection moves through denial, guilt, and acceptance, charting the complex intimacy of grief: the soft fur that lingers on a pillow, the empty space at the end of the bed, the silence that hums where breath once was. Written in the weeks following his passing, these poems capture the immediacy of mourning with unflinching honesty and grace. Just a Little Weight is not about healing, but about honoring grief and learning to hold on to what remains, even as it slips  away. What begins as a story of one cat’s final days becomes something larger: a reflection on love’s persistence, on how the bonds that shape us refuse to fade, and on the fragile beauty of remembering. Caitlin Sutherland is an instructional designer, poet, and writer from Chicago, Illinois. Her work explores themes of memory, loss, and the quiet persistence of love. She finds inspiration in the relationships and small moments that shape everyday life. Her work has appeared in Eunoia Review. When she isn’t writing, she enjoys playing tennis and spending time with her cats, who remind her what love can look like in its quietest forms.