The speaker is a creative person who keeps making things, writing and creating until their hands are worn down to "nubs." The restless image of twiddling thumbs suggests both nervous energy and a kind of wasted effort, as if the work is consuming them rather than rewarding them.
The turn comes with the dancer whose feet are bloodied. Audiences usually see only the grace of a performance, not the pain behind it, and the speaker compares themselves to that figure. What they want is to be told that their self-destruction is "beautiful." The word sits alone on its own line, which makes it feel both longed for and a little hollow.
The mood is raw and quietly bleak. The speaker seems to need approval so badly that they will hurt themselves for it, and the poem hints at how dangerous it can be when suffering is praised as art. The lowercase style and short lines make it feel like a private confession.