The poem reads like a slow walk around an old family place, where each stop brings back something that has changed or disappeared. A few short images carry everything: dock leaves pressed against a window, a chicken house that is no longer there, a maple with broken limbs, a stone wall. The speaker doesn't explain much, which leaves the reader to fill in the feeling.
The most striking moment is the "mummified rats," kept as a childhood collection and now remembered only by their grins. It's funny and a little creepy at once, the way childhood can be. The maple was once the speaker's "best climbing teacher," a tender phrase that makes the damaged tree feel like an old friend who has aged. The ending is quietly moving. The stone wall has to be rebuilt again and again, and the poem suggests this is a task the speaker keeps returning to. The mood is wistful and patient, with a sense of loss, but also of stubborn care for what remains.