The speaker is caught in a painful loop: he lashes out at the person he loves, watches them take the blow, and goes back for more. Frankie keeps returning, lip trembling, denying nothing, and Johnny keeps saying the unsayable because, as he admits, the words are "delicious." The poem is unsettling because he doesn't pretend to be innocent. He enjoys the cruelty, and he also feels each "stunned look" echo in his stomach.
The title suggests the poem is addressed to Frankie, which makes the confession feel raw and direct. The image of the hound eating snakeroot to purge itself suggests Johnny wants to cleanse himself of this need, though the poem never shows him managing it. The ending turns strange and sad: "I love you beyond reason," he says, then wishes Frankie would pay him back "in my own coin." He wants to be hurt in return, perhaps as punishment, perhaps as proof of an equal fight. The mood is tense, guilty, and hungry.