No Quarter

I haunt your purgatory shores.
Charon stands sentry
with his oars
and I can't make purchase
no barter
no coin.

(Guilt is heavier than gold
and worth far less)
I digress

and wonder

how I got here.
So close
to your side.
So very far
from my own.

Afraid to move
beyond the shadows
and shades
I flare with the scent
of rosemary
on a wave
of long-dead time.

But no mercy.
No break.
Don't wake.

I skirt the light.

Time is wide
by your river,
not long,
and I can't close my eyes.

I am distant.

Ashore.

And I remain
too stubborn
to accept
Absolution.

Ha! Sorry.

I'm just low on pocket change for the ferryman.

Thank you for reading!

The only way it would work for me was short lines. Glad it worked for you, too.

They are.

Then I scourge them.

Cass, yay, thanks for coming over.
First, i know about the rosemary, and memory, which is why it's there. Wasn't sure if it would be lost and a bit odd sitting there alone. and the time/thyme is exactly what i was hoping for.
I'll consider your suggestions. I'm not 100% sold on some of this poem, myself, so suggestions are welcome, and thanks for making them. As for time being wide, yes, you are close on it. Also, time doesn't feel linear when you continually hop back and remember a bad thing. It has a different feeling when you try to straddle it and have a foot in two places.



C.B. yes! Glad you got the LZ title. the phrase "give no quarter" is what the narrator is doing to herself -no mercy. It also has a fun twist for me, in coins on the eyes to pay the ferryman for passage to the underworld.

Ok. You sold me. Rosemary stands alone.