The poem follows a season turning from autumn into winter, and the speaker seems to turn with it. It begins with simple scenes: wind, sun, leaves falling. Then the snow arrives and everything goes white. The short lines that follow, "the first footstep / the last footstep," feel like a whole journey squeezed into a breath.
The snow angel is an odd, sad image. It is usually a playful thing, but here it sits beside "my heart broken, not keeping me warm." The speaker feels cold in a way that has nothing to do with weather. As the days get "colder and darker," the speaker gets "smaller," then unseen, then "invisible." The mood is lonely, quiet and resigned. The last line is the hardest: "I don't want to / but I don't decide that." It suggests the speaker feels helpless, as if disappearing is something happening to them rather than something they choose. The plain, simple language makes that helplessness feel even more honest.