Darkness starts out as a monster here. It hides under stairs, grabs at the speaker's legs at night, and shrinks away from sunlight, smiles and laughter. The speaker treats it like a creature that only dares to appear when no one else is around.
That changes when the speaker is alone. The darkness slips up from behind and muffles their crying, and the poem moves into a panicked rush: a cracking heart, a tight chest, lost breath, a spinning head. It reads like a panic attack, or a wave of overwhelming sadness, though the poem never names it.
Then comes the turn. The "black tear" that falls feels almost like the darkness itself weeping. It wraps around the speaker, and the short lines "Hugging. Caring. Crying." soften the mood. The poem ends in a strange calm, as though the speaker has stopped fighting their sadness and found companionship in it. The mood moves from fear to relief, though it is also a little unsettling.