The speaker is turning down an invitation to return to a former life, one the poem pictures through sex, longing, and bleak city streets. The first two stanzas repeat the same plea, "call me not back," and the same answer, "i go not that way again." The past is described with a mix of attraction and distaste: "loveless dirt-strewn streets" sit beside "tender heat" and "small rose-nippled breasts." That tension suggests the speaker remembers the pull of desire while also sensing how empty it was.
The turning point is the image of winter and "blind children" weeping on "bruised knees" around a frozen pond. It is a stark, sad picture, and it seems to change the speaker completely. Heart and feet turn to ice, so moving back is no longer just a choice but something the body can't do. The mood is cold, final, and weary, with the heat of the earlier lines frozen out. The lowercase style and slashes at the end of lines add to the sense of a flat, resolved voice.