The poem opens with a string of "don'ts": don't look back, don't frown, don't be you. The speaker says these are both thoughts that flood their mind and words they've heard from others over time. Now they repeat them to themselves, and the speaker admits this is a way of covering up "what's actually going on inside." The lowercase, plain style makes it feel like a private, unpolished confession.
The middle of the poem describes numbness. The speaker wakes up "almost robotically," doing what they've always done, and tells themselves that mistakes are fine because they're human. Even that comfort sounds like another line they recite rather than something they believe. They decide to keep going and live "for something other than myself," which suggests they find little reason to carry on for their own sake.
The last line is the most unsettling: "though i feel i'd make a pretty sunset." A sunset is beautiful but it is also an ending, so the line hints at dark thoughts. The mood is quiet, weary, and sad.