I've chosen this song to correspond to since I am going through a painful marriage crisis myself these days.
in one of our terrible arguments my wife had pulled a virtual gun on me (and fired).
I'm Just here to say Suzanne's (hope you read this yourself) music is acumpanying me for, well, nearly 20 years now. I was 15 when I bought "Suzanne vega" appreciating "Marlene on the Wall" which I have seen on a music show on Tv, and have followed her (you)since.
these days (not the easiest of days, I remind you) I find myself crying to "small blue thing", "left of center", "solitude standing" "night vision" and others. actually, just hearing your voice can easily bring me to tears these days. so thanks for being you, and thanks for the red and grey album. I particularly like "Soap and Water" (my wife could have written that one , "songs in red and gray", and others. looking towards your next album; Amir, Israel.

This song is really intriguing me these days. It's both original, and typical of Suzanne to formulate the equation: person = weapon.

She's more playful with the weapon metaphore than in many songs.

"... you said I'd be a gun - lethal at close range, I guess, with silencer and stun."

Stun-guns don't need silencers because they don't shoot bullets. Guns with silencers don't stun because they do shoot bullets. This verse speaks to a person's stunned, speachless reaction to having the singer, at close range.

Personally, she feels more like a needle, always pulling on the thread... etc.

The object, perhaps reacting to stress, comes down on her with blunt, heavy words to end the confrontation.

The thing is... she's concealed a weapon, which is to say another person. That third person is "folded up inside"... dare I suggest a fetus?

Again, the caveat: Not biographical - but in the Gerry Springer sensibility of my class and geography, I can deifinitely interpret this song as a mother arguing with her baby's daddy.

That fictional mommy is saying to her embattled boyfriend, "What you don't know is, I'm pregnant! Some day you'll see this child shine, and then you'll want him/her back."

In the very end of the song, the child becomes, "The hostage" and mommy urges, "We'll talk it down until we see this through."