The poem watches a sunset at 6.30pm and uses it to talk about losing someone. The sun slips away like a person returned to a lover, and the bystander, a detached figure who only watches and waits, listens to sunbirds whose time has passed. The poem suggests that this is the moment to forget: the outline of someone's skin, the sound of their voice, all left to fate and circumstance. Erasing is described as having "a certain glory," and the sky's dying glow seems to agree.
But the calm tone feels forced. People say it is "a new dawn, rid of all sentimentality," yet the air quivers, as if something is still shaking underneath. The final two lines make this clear. The speaker lifts a lighter to a painting the other person left, an act that suggests burning a memory. The bystander simply looks toward the night. The mood is quiet, wistful and tense, with grief dressed up as acceptance.