Vocabulary in The Manhunt

A poem in which a single speaker addresses the reader directly, revealing their inner thoughts and feelings as if speaking aloud, while the listener remains silent.

An organised, determined search for a person; here used both for military search operations and for a wife's intimate search to find the man her husband used to be.

Permanent marks or hardened tissue left on skin after a wound has healed; here used to trace the physical path of Eddie's injuries back to their origin.

The joint that allows a hinged part to open and close; here applied to the jaw, describing the joint where the lower jaw connects to the skull and enables the mouth to move.

Shattered or destroyed by an explosion; here describing the jaw joint as having been violently damaged by blast or impact during combat.

An unborn creature still developing inside the body; here used as a disturbing metaphor for a bullet embedded deep in the chest, curled and hidden like something growing within.

Extended the area or scope of looking for something; here meaning Laura moved beyond one part of Eddie's body to explore further, tracing his injuries more broadly.

The long, slender bone running from the shoulder to the base of the neck; here it is one of the specific bones Laura tenderly examines on Eddie's injured body.

A flat piece of metal surgically inserted into the body to hold broken bones together or protect damaged tissue after serious injury.

The tough, fibrous skin that forms over a wound as it heals, often thicker and less flexible than normal skin; here it marks the sites of Eddie's combat injuries.

A buried explosive device that has not yet detonated; here used figuratively for the unresolved psychological trauma — PTSD — still active and dangerous inside Eddie's mind.

Closed off and made official, as a legal document is stamped shut; here describing Eddie's deepest psychological wound as locked away and inaccessible, even to his wife.