Tankers on Auburn's Sea

The graveyards of Auburn are gaunt goliaths
that wander woefully from street to street
or haunt benches in mall square and park
waiting for synchronised timelessness
of that repeated act of giving up

                                         Satchels of a silence that only they can hear
                                         on their backs, their heads, their chests
                                         leech viscid sacks they offload briefly
                                         catch their breath in swirling inertia
                                         welcome monotonous disengage 

The age of their faces seems to have frozen
though they stride with the weary clunk
of most-ancient detached grim reapers
maritime memorials for those fallen
pulverised mortar mutilated flesh

               Layers of pain wrap their burly-brawn body frames
               guilt-blame weaving in like harlequin diamonds
               ambiguous memories pleasant but culpable
               statures intimidating as armoured hoards
               they lurk about utter less than finches