Cat Moving Kittens

We must have known, Even as we reached Down to touch them Where we'd found them Shut-eyed and trembling Under a straw bale In the haymow, that She would move them That night under cover Of darkness, and that By finding them We were making certain We wouldn't see them again Until we saw them Crouching under the pickup Like sullen teens, having gone As wild by then as they'd gone Still in her mouth that night She made a decision Any mother might make Upon guessing the intentions Of the state: to go and to Go now, taking everything You love between your teeth.