remains

• remains

  remains of a body after the attack

  the thoughts that remain with a soldier after war
• well myself and somebody else and somebody else


  chaos of war- cant recollect

  not claiming sole responsibility as he cannot take that
• tosses his guts back into his body


  gruesome imagery, grotesque and visual

  tosses-soldiers have to dehumanise things in order to stay sane- means of survival
• then i'm home on leave... but i blink

  inescapable, goes on and on and haunts him

  he is plagued by 1 infected memory

  full stop- pause for rest and the restart
• his bloody life in my bloody hands


  first person- there is no collective responsibility now, he feels solely responsible

  double meaning to bloody- talking about the mans blood but also swearing in anger

  connotes to Macbeth and how 'all of neptune's oceans could not wash this blood' from his hands
• dug in behind enemy lines


  metaphor compares the memory stuck in his head to a soldier in a trench
• context


  written by Simon Armitage b.1963

  written as a monologue, feels like fast paced natural speech

  no rhythmic pattern