The girls scamper 

up a rise

then huddle 

legs to chest

under a canopy

of bracken 

Y2K looms

like a giant spider's

web

but these girls have 

a plan for when 

the world

hanging by 

a digital thread

unravels 

the creek will

be their haven 

They've been reading

Tomorrow, When the War Began

but for nineties preteens 

the supernatural is more

believable than an

Australian invasion

What else is 

war but a rendering 

of the Boogey Man?

The book sends their 

imagination into 

overdrive

already hardwired by 

late-night sleepovers 

devouring

Stephen King 

and point horror 

novels

eyes boggling at

gremlins

ghosts

and ghoulies

stars of PG 

monster movies

who've got them 

building booby traps 

out of old sheets

and mattresses 

Children have

been playing fear 

for hundreds

of years 

and while they're 

living in post-war 

bliss

there's no

missing adults 

kicking up a stink 

over a computer 

kink called

The Millennium Bug

The girls theorise

when dial-up Internet dies

when calendar codes 

bulk at double zeros

creatures of the night

will pull out humanity's

rug into the throws of chaos

Dressed in

Adidas sneakers

Trigger Pants

and surf brand tops

they wobble

leap

hop over fountains of 

bubbling rock until

the trees feel dense

as the Blue Mountains 

Clearer than 

holy water

the creek will wash

away their scent

from any ill-intended 

werewolf intent on 

tracking them

Then bank to bank 

they slip between

the banksia 

taking only the sharpest

stick to stake the

heart of an undead

vampire

They list the

essentials

to best equip

their hidey-hole

batteries

and a Discman

they forgo

the Nintendo

there's no TV 

without electricity 

but all agree

books

are a necessity 

for their small utopia 

content to read

until they blend

into eucalyptus 

regardless of

dictatorship or 

dystopia

They don't discuss

what will happen to 

their parents

their friends 

their pets 

Besides

Y2K passes 

without a glitch

They go to the 

creek less and less

made more accessible 

by a boardwalk

and a bridge 

There are 

parties to attend 

Star Wars with 

Hayden Christensen

Green Day's latest 

album

and war is only fun 

if in it ends

with fish ‘n’ chips