A woman tries to kiss the speaker on New Year's Eve, a moment meant for celebration, and he pulls back in "pain and disgust." The poem is his attempt to explain why. She read his smile as an invitation, and he imagines her deciding he must be taken or gay. He says she's wrong on both counts: he simply avoids emotional small talk.
The last stanza shows the real issue. He describes himself as dead inside, surrounded by "chaff and debris," and he believes only the right person could wake him. Until then, he says, he'll live as if he has died. The tone is bleak but also a little defensive. The jokey rhymes and blunt phrasing suggest someone covering hurt with dry humor. What the poem leaves you with is loneliness: he isn't rejecting affection so much as waiting for something that feels real, and the forced cheer of a holiday kiss only makes his emptiness louder.