Wounds
Appears in 9 songs
“Stitches undone”
The stitches represent what bound the relationship together, now coming apart. Also carries a physical wound resonance from the Odd Man Out allusion (Johnny McQueen's literal stitches from being wounded) and connects to Glitch ('fastening myself to you with a stitch').
“And pierce new holes in my heart”
The piercing of new holes in the heart is read as both metaphor and hyperbole, the speaker's heart has been wounded repeatedly, and this latest discovery (watching him at the pub) creates fresh wounds on top of old ones. Uncle Jerry notes: 'new holes implies that there have been past holes pierced in her heart already. And possibly by the same person.'
“I'm a soldier who's returning half her weight”
The speaker as a wounded soldier returning from war, the relationship was a battle she did not win and did not return from unscathed. Uncle Jerry reads this as 'one of the most powerful metaphors in the work,' noting both the physical maiming (half her weight) and the larger framing of the relationship as a war.
“You drew stars around my scars But now I'm bleedin'”
Scars as symbols of past injuries that James temporarily beautified (drew stars around) but could not actually heal, the wounds reopen because the fix was insincere.
“Paper cut stings from our paper thin plans”
Paper cuts as the song's title image: small, accumulating wounds figured through writing. Two registers operate at once, literal paper cuts from writing pages about the relationship, and the figurative paper-cut sting of 'paper thin plans.' The image collapses the wound and its source into the same artefact (paper), which is the song's central conceit. Captured under the broader Wounds motif rather than as a standalone Paper Cuts canonical.
“Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand”
The wound from the pricked hand is the Sleeping Beauty wound, the physical injury from the prophecy's fulfillment. The wound produces poison blood, suggesting the romantic damage the speaker has sustained is toxic and ongoing.
“What should be over, burrowed under my skin In heart-stopping waves of hurt”
The burrowing under the skin personifies emotional pain as a parasite, something that should be gone but has embedded itself in the speaker's body, causing ongoing hurt that manifests physically.
“Or the violence of the dog days”
Wounds that don't heal, connected to the folklore tradition that wounds cannot close during the dog days of summer, representing the speaker's emotional pain that persists without healing.
“Counting all the scars you made”
Scars as the accumulated emotional damage inflicted by the male figure, each scar representing a specific hurt the speaker can now catalogue in retrospect.