The speaker walks us past an orphanage and asks us to look closely at what we'd rather not see. The details are small and sad: dolls staring out of windows, broken toy firetrucks in the yard, pillows stained yellow by tears, food left on plates. The children's faces are hollow, and the speaker reads despair even in the face of a child who seems unforgiving.
The last two stanzas turn on a quiet twist. Pigtails, ribbons and buttoned shirts would normally suggest a cared-for child, but here they become restraints. The shirts are a "chokehole" and the ribbons "tie" the girls in place, so tidiness turns into a kind of jail where no one can go out to play. The speaker feels sorrow and a protective anger, and the mood is heavy, bleak and accusing. The poem suggests that looking neat is not the same as being loved or free. The rough spelling and punctuation don't hide the feeling behind it.