A speaker and a dog walk a cobbled path at night, and the poem lets the dark take over. Their shadows pour across the stones "like dark liquid," and the streetlamps look lonely. Down the hill, car headlights seem like a deer's frightened eyes, then grow into dragon's eyes as they climb the winding road, swinging the shadows around before the wind dies into silence.
The scene then settles on a moonlit cemetery, where the broken gravestones lean and the rusted gates are no use against "vandals and lovers." That odd pairing adds a touch of dry humor. The final lines turn to the speaker's own thought: death may be the most interesting subject there is, because it pulls attention away from ordinary daily life. The mood is eerie but calm. The speaker seems more curious than afraid, and the title's play of light and dark fits that mix.