The Forty-Ninth Day

[dukealien]

dukealien: Thank you! The line-by-line suggestions are very helpful. In terms of the ambiguity, there are some places earlier in the poem that I want to make clearer, but I was thinking of keeping the last line as is. You mention the last line is the most ambiguous, but did you mean that as ambiguous to the detriment of the poem, or as just a feature of that line?

Lest I be misunderstood (and without reference to the other critics, not read before commenting), ambiguity is not a bad thing, necessarily.  Sometimes it's the whole point, and often it leads the reader to use imagination that would otherwise be (too?) limited.  So if you *meant* to be ambiguous, success!  And if you meant to be specific, as a poet you don't always get the understanding you want from those pesky readers   .

As I see/read it, the last line's ambiguity is fitting and effective.