ONCE UPON A TIME (A POEM) BY GABRIEL OKARA

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Once upon a time, son,
 they used to laugh with their hearts
 and laugh with their eyes:
 but now they only laugh with their teeth,
 while their ice-block-cold eyes
 search behind my shadow.

 There was a time indeed
 they used to shake hands with their hearts:
 but that’s gone, son.
 Now they shake hands without hearts
 while their left hands search
 my empty pockets.

 ‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:
 they say, and when I come
 again and feel
 at home, once, twice,
 there will be no thrice-
 for then I find doors shut on me.

 So I have learned many things, son.
 I have learned to wear many faces
 like dresses – homeface,

 Gabriel Okara
 Gabriel Okara
 officeface, streetface, hostface,
 cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles
 like a fixed portrait smile.

 And I have learned too
 to laugh with only my teeth
 and shake hands without my heart.
 I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,
 when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
 to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
 without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
 nice talking to you’, after being bored.

 But believe me, son.
 I want to be what I used to be
 when I was like you. I want
 to unlearn all these muting things.
 Most of all, I want to relearn
 how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror
 shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!

 So show me, son,
 how to laugh; show me how
 I used to laugh and smile
 once upon a time when I was like you.

GABRIEL OKARA (born Gabriel Imomotimi Okara on 24 April 1921) was a Nigerian poet and a novelist who was born in Bumoundi in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. His most famous works include: The Voice(fiction, 1964), The Fisherman’s Invocation (poetry, 1978), The Dreamer, His Vision (poetry, 2005) and An Adventure to Juju Island (children poetry, 1992). Okara is a widely celebrated writer, especially for his poetry and his awards include: Best All-Round Entry In Poetry at the Nigerian Festival of Arts (‘The Call of the River Nun’, 1953), Commonwealth Poetry Prize, for The Fisherman’s Invocation (1979), NLNG Prize, for The Dreamer, His Vision (2005) and Pan African Writers’ Association Honorary Membership Award (2009). He died on Monday 25^th March 2019 aged 97 [Source: Wikipedia].