Fingernails are merging wounds by joining two into one; the eight or ten wounds that were once there have now been scratched raw into just four or five.

Here, the lover is gripped by such fierce frenzy that he endlessly scratches at his own wounded heart, tearing the flesh until adjacent wounds bleed into one. With bitter irony, he notes that his wounds haven't decreased out of healing; rather, scratching has merged eight or ten smaller gashes into four or five massive, gaping ones. It is a haunting image of passion and grief, showing how intense heartache can swallow individual pains into one continuous agony.