![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.robwalkerpoet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/pre-dated.jpg\" "\\"pre-dated\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis began life as pre-dated.<\/em> I was having a fishing holiday at our shack on Yorke Peninsula across the Gulf from Adelaide when I was buzzed by a chopper. I found out on the TV news that night that a local boy had been taken by a shark and the helicopter contained photographers & journos looking for shots of sharks, treacherous seas and the boy\u2019s school. I couldn\u2019t get the idea of predators out of my head \u2013 the media even moreso than the shark.<\/p>\n Onlymeith has produced an ominous soundscape to underline the mercilessness of both sharks and the mass media, using Javolenus\u2019 disquieting sub-bass, (use your best headphones!) hints of swords unsheathing and a relentless, remorseless heartbeat.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pre-dated<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n After the poor boy is taken in shallows<\/p>\n Another pack of sharks<\/p>\n Sniffs out crimson billows.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Even here, on the gulf’s other side<\/p>\n A school of choppers<\/p>\n Arrives for frenzied interviews and shots<\/p>\n Of the victim’s school<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Politicians join the feeding maelstrom<\/p>\n Demands on talkback<\/p>\n For the creature to be shot<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Only the boys parents won’t play the bloodlust game<\/p>\n It’s the last thing he would have wanted <\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But they are dismissed as<\/p>\n Too close to comment<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The gulf widens.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Predators move in.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u00a9 rob walker, 2006<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n This poem appeared in my chapbook phobiaphobia \u2013 poems of fear and anxiety<\/em><\/strong> (Picaro Press, Australia, 2006.)<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Thanks Carlos \/onlymeith for another exquisitely-produced interpretation of my words.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n