soft shoulder
soft verge

It rolled off onto the soft shoulder of the road.

And a car had gone around the wreckage, out again on the soft shoulder of the road.

The white van turned onto the soft shoulder and pulled to a stop.

A woman - your mother - had been flung clear on to the soft shoulder.

Lester pulled the car over onto the soft shoulder against the trees.

A soft shoulder and a quiet sob were what he had found.

Don't put your big feet on that soft shoulder dirt.

He laughed and shook his head, then spit on the soft shoulder.

Joe sat on the soft shoulder of the road, watching them with his seawater eyes.

"A flame seemed to burn the hand that grasped her soft shoulder."

The soft shoulders on either side were full of dusty thistles.

She planted her feet at the door and looked back over a soft shoulder at him.

It stopped a hundred yards or so down the road, in a little turnout on the soft shoulder.

Her soft shoulders rose and fell in a helpless shrug.

She nodded, clinging to his soft shoulders and easing herself back down.

He stood and allowed himself the luxury of sliding his hands gently off her soft shoulders.

As the car shot for the side of the road, Drake fought it under control just before the front wheels hit the soft shoulder.

Nevertheless, they had soft shoulders and were made of pliant fabrics.

Jay said, patting Joe on the back, and squeezing his soft shoulder.

His arm slipped down over a soft shoulder; the touch steadied him.

The other peeped over her soft shoulder and menaced the rest.

She hesitated, then went on, "If you need a soft shoulder, be my guest.

His boots made dragging, scuffing sounds on the soft shoulder.

Drawing his new, softer shoulder for fall, he adds, "You see?

A sign goes by the window saying, Soft Shoulders.

After releasing its first half-dozen releases solely on compact disc, the label began pressing audiophile-grade vinyl with Michael Bassett's Soft Verges.

Michael Bassett, Soft Verges (CD/vinyl, 2008)

The terrific lines keep coming, but they are doublecharged: Nabokov is "a semiprecious writer;" W.G. Sebald's sentences "draw you on with such courteous grace toward the soft verges of dread"; Pynchon is "in the fullest sense, an old hippie".