A speaker grieves a lost love and clings to memories of closeness. The refrain "My love my love, my pain" comes back again and again, and it shows how the person they miss is both the source of their happiness and their hurt. The speaker says they stopped smiling since the other person left, and they sometimes pretend the arms around them and the hand in theirs are still there.
Most of the poem is built from small, physical memories: dancing in a basement, a hand on the waist, a head resting on a chest, a heartbeat. Kissing in silence among trees and under starry skies adds a quiet, almost dreamlike feel. The questions "Do you ever pretend?" and "Do you remember?" suggest the speaker doesn't know whether the feeling is shared. The mood is tender, lonely and aching. The last line, about golden eyes, ends on a single image the speaker can't let go of.