The time has come, the walrus said

But not to speak of leaving as we all thought he was.
But clearing his throat to begin, he said this time
is time to rest a bit, and with great surprise
I turned about myself to find the script
I wrote for him to say.

It’s not as though the sun rises and sets
and each time pulls a new world with it,
like yesterday was so different from today.
It’s just that somehow I expected
the night’s blanket would have pulled down the sky
and poked new holes in the earth; but waking
to discover what in fact I had already seen,
I turned in shock, to the walrus
who does not speak of leaving.

He speaks instead of settling, and
does not once even shift his bulk in uncertainty.
The time has come, said he, for your little feet
to remain in Wonderland, and watch
as the world grows up around you.