Dave Bonta's "Degenerative" is a short, strange poem about a self that is wearing away. The title suggests a condition of decline, and the opening lines make it physical: in the wood the speaker decays, in the sea the speaker undresses. Nature here doesn't comfort. It either rots the speaker down or strips them bare.
The third and fourth lines are harder to pin down. A gun is "like a common candle," which links something dangerous to something small and ordinary. The image could suggest a weak, flickering kind of protection, though the poem leaves it open. The last lines bring the sense of threat into focus: the speaker is "in pain to defend myself / from the light of day." Daylight, normally a relief, becomes something to guard against.
The mood is raw, exposed and wary. Judging by the imagery, the speaker feels vulnerable, perhaps ill or exhausted, and defensive even against what should be harmless. The poem gives no explanation, which makes the unease stronger.