Michael John Pickering's poem is an urgent nudge to live fully while there is still time. The opening line sets the tone: make a stir now, because after death there are only answers and no more questions. The speaker seems calm rather than panicked, stating hard facts plainly. The morning star and evening star are the same body, and in the same way, life and death may be less separate than we think. The "dyad," the pairing of you and yourself, dissolves at death, and the speaker's cry of "O consciousness!" sounds both amazed and sorry.
The second half turns inward. The speaker asks where our vague feelings go, the ones we once called the soul, and names desire and dread as the two forces behind them. The world is a womb we come from. The closing instructions are quiet and practical: leave room for silence, drop the refrains, count every small thing you see, and listen to each note of the body. The mood is reflective, a little haunted, but ends in close, patient attention to being alive.