The poem follows a relationship with someone older, tracked in jumps of six years. At first the speaker is a child meeting a person who seems impossibly cool, and the "unseeming game" that begins sounds playful but slightly off, as if the friendship was never quite what it appeared to be. In the second stage, the repeated "it's fine, it's fine, it's fine" feels like someone trying to convince themselves, and the speaker's tangled "no, no, no, I mean no - yes" shows how confused and torn they are.
By the third stage, the speaker is relying on the other person's words ("you say I'm fine, so I must be fine") instead of their own feelings. Then comes the blunt line, "nothing is fine." The last line suggests that only after the other person is gone can the speaker see clearly. The mood is quiet and uneasy, moving from childhood admiration to a sober, painful realisation. The short, plain lines make the ending hit harder.