The Fate Of Kittens (Poetry)

They never told me
what happened to them
one week they were there
the next they’d vanished
cat-mother bereft

Poor Trixie produced
litters of kittens
quite regularly
the child I was then
quite oblivious

of their certain fate
whose hand it was held
them under the cold
of the water butt
while hardly flinching

Now I understand
her crude reasoning —
extra mouths unplanned
yet no moves made for
future prevention

Her upbringing hard
scant education
her one solution
to kill anything
she couldn’t care for