Sometimes tradition is a way of keeping going.

The time on either side of now stands fast.

When Sleeping Beauty wakes up, she is almost fifty years old

One way of ending the poem is to turn it back on itself, like a serpent with its tail in its mouth.

I'm going home the old way with a light hand on the reins making the long approach.

... people get confidential at midnight.

Meanwhile let us cast one shadow in air and water.