Kevin O'Conner's poem catches a small, quiet moment of comfort. The speaker is alone and feeling "lost and done for" on a summer evening, with Otis Redding's music hanging in the air. Then someone, "her," lays an old blue scarf across his shoulder and touches his hand. That simple gesture is enough. He knows she understands what he is going through, even though nothing is said out loud.
The mood is tender and hushed. The repeated words "soft, soft" and the "dying light" give the poem a slow, fading-day feeling, a bit sad but mostly warm. The structure helps too: lines come back again and again, like a chorus or a song stuck in the head, so the opening night and the embrace return at the end. By the last lines, the speaker says he will sleep with the memory of that closeness. The moment is brief, but it stays with him and eases his loneliness.