[Carl Copeland]

I like this poem quite a lot, Susan. At first glance, it’s about hypocrisy. About those who deplore Mary Magdalene and contemplate her flesh in private (!), while continuing to sin.

I didn’t get any ambiguity from L5. “Cut short” is used adjectivally, so she’s remorseful for her cut-short sinning ways. It’s too much of a stretch to read it as “remorseful for my sinning ways having been cut short.”

My favorite line is the same as Glenn’s, and in general I like your use of short sentences and sentence fragments.

It must be the picture of Mary Magdalene that’s “for private contemplation when alone,” though it could also be the skull. (It’s hard to keep poor Yorick out of this, but I see no direct connection.)

I think the last line is as you say: convoluted, but comprehensible. Also Pauline: “For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.”

The poem delivers a very Christian message, except that you’ve substituted bone for what Christians would probably call spirit. That’s intriguing.