Nettle's "Cat's kill" is a short, tense scene in which a wild cat attacks the speaker and the attack feels strangely like a kiss. The opening words, "Kiss, Pounce, Dangerous," set up the poem's central tension: affection and threat arrive together, and the poem never separates them.
The speaker is held in a stare, then knocked over. The repeated "Down, down, down" mimics the fall and gives it a dizzying, helpless rhythm. What stands out is that the speaker doesn't seem to fight back. The cat "kisses" with "sharp teeth," and the final line, "Into nothingness," suggests being overwhelmed until nothing is left. The title hints that the speaker is the cat's prey.
The mood is thrilling and unsettling at once. The poem could be read literally, as a cat attack, or as a picture of a seductive, dangerous attraction that destroys the person caught in it. Judging by the language, the speaker feels fear but also a kind of surrender.