Malefactor

We'd only just pulled up in the car
Long drive from Sydney to the small village
Cow in a small paddock munching grass
At the back of the old bush cemetery
A large patch of empty lawn maintained
Nice place for an occasional visit
The quiet country stillness so peaceful
An SUV family the only other souls
Over in the far corner of the empty space
They’d put their toddler down on a blanket
While mum and dad went back to the car
When the animal burst out of adjacent scrub
Finding a gap under the graveyard's wire fence
One of those jaw-dogs people keep, brown
When they grab their prey they find the throat
And do that side-to-side ripping thing
Like it's all a big game. Maybe this was a game
In the moment before the screams I realised
That SUVs, and country lanes, and maintained lawns
Are constructions of comfort, diverting our fears
From what lurks over fences, and in scrubs
Startling, primitive, uncanny, amoral scrubs