A woman speaks about bearing a child after what seems to be rape by a soldier she can't even identify. The poem never names the event, but the phrase "stoned soldier" and her wish to "shove away, away" strongly suggest it. Her central torment is that she can't decide how to feel about the baby: should she caress him or push him off? Even touch, normally the simplest comfort, has become confusing.
Her actions are practical and animal-like. She nurses him to relieve her swollen breasts, and she licks him "like a cat," as if instinct has taken over where love can't yet reach. The salt detail hints at hunger or scarcity. The final lines turn eerie and strange: severed hands rise and point, as though the dead or the mutilated are accusing someone. The mood is raw, bleak and haunted, with a harsh tenderness at its edges.