Vanessa's poem is a letter addressed to "87," someone who is no longer there. The speaker is lying awake, and the silence left behind feels almost like a sound. Her feelings tangle together: she blames the other person ("You did this"), grieves their smile and laugh, and then pretends she's fine. The lines "I'll be better without you / Really." sound unconvincing, especially with the hesitant "Just... Don't worry about / Me. Alone. Here." Those broken, single-word phrases show how isolated she feels.
The mood is dark and uneasy. Night, silence and a creeping fear fill the middle of the poem, and the voice that says "Hello it's your nightmare" makes the loneliness feel almost haunting. The ending is bitter. Dreams and nightmares are both things you wake from, but she says "this is real." Her final line, "And I have you to thank," is sarcastic, and it leaves the reader with a mix of hurt, anger and sadness. Judging by the number in the title, "87" may be a code or a nickname, but the poem never explains it.