Snaith//The Manhunt

After the first phase,

after passionate nights and intimate days,

Passionate: nature of their relationship, sexual, physical

Intimate: very close, intimacy before and after the war, emotional and physical

only then would he let me trace

the frozen river which ran through his face,

Frozen river:

• The colour of his scar
• The 'landscape' of his face
  • A passage for the bullet

only then would he let me explore

the blown hinge of his lower jaw,

Explore: sexual foreplay, find him again emotionally

Blown hinge:

• Army connotations
• The door that has closed opening up?

and handle and hold

the damaged, porcelain collar-bone,

Handle and hold: alliteration, 'huh-huh' sounds, sexual

Damaged, porcelain: delicate, he is breakable

and mind and attend

the fractured rudder of shoulder-blade,

Rudder: direction, or lack of? Does she guide him?

and finger and thumb

the parachute silk of his punctured lung.

Finger and thumb: sexual

Parachute silk:

• Army connotations
• Strength compared with beauty

Only then could I bind the struts

and climb the rungs of his broken ribs,

Bind: she wants to heal him

Climb the rungs: up to his heart

and feel the hurt

of his grazed heart.

Grazed:

• Tender and sore
• Not totally destroyed, still mendable

Skirting along,

only then could I picture the scan,

Skirting along: edging around, avoiding the hurt

the foetus of metal beneath his chest

where the bullet had finally come to rest.

Foetus:

• Damage is growing
• He is the mother, he can't get rid of the child
• Pain of childbirth, pain of injury

Then I widened the search,

traced the scarring back to its source.

Widened the search: sexual

to a sweating, unexploded mine

buried deep in his mind, around which

Sweating, unexploded: he is a minefield, one thing can trigger it all, memories are mines

Buried deep: sexual? Dead body?

every nerve in his body had tightened and closed.

Then, and only then, did I come close.

negative connotations

sexual connotations