Exhaust the little moment. Soon it dies.
And be it gash or gold it will not come
Again in this identical disguise.

Brooks’s lines urge an intense attentiveness to the present: the “little moment” is brief, mortal, and irrecoverable. The imperative “Exhaust” suggests not mere enjoyment but full use—wringing meaning, action, or awareness from what is immediately at hand. The phrase “be it gash or gold” acknowledges that a moment may arrive as pain or as treasure, yet either way it is singular and unrepeatable. “Identical disguise” implies time’s recurring patterns can fool us into thinking experiences return unchanged; Brooks counters that each instant is unique, and our responsibility is to meet it completely before it vanishes.