An older man sits by the Mediterranean, sifting sand and shells through his fingers, and looks back on a love that has ended. The scene on the beach gives the poem its frame: footsteps coming and going, and a child leaping into a parent's arms, certain he will be caught. That child's easy trust is exactly what the speaker no longer has.
The central memory is of falling for someone mysterious. The speaker compares himself to Icarus, flailing as the wax melts, which suggests he knew the fall was coming but couldn't stop it. He admired and was dazzled at once, and he ran toward the person and away from them, frozen between the two. The poem suggests the relationship slowly wore down his dream rather than ending in one dramatic blow.
The mood is wistful and quiet, tinged with loss. Mentions of his "gnarled fingers" and "years" give it a sense of time slipping by. The last line leaves him suspended "between love and death," unable to settle either way.