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<pre class="wp-block-verse">Once upon a time, son,<br> they used to laugh with their hearts<br> and laugh with their eyes:<br> but now they only laugh with their teeth,<br> while their ice-block-cold eyes<br> search behind my shadow.<br><br> There was a time indeed<br> they used to shake hands with their hearts:<br> but that’s gone, son.<br> Now they shake hands without hearts<br> while their left hands search<br> my empty pockets.<br><br> ‘Feel at home!’ ‘Come again’:<br> they say, and when I come<br> again and feel<br> at home, once, twice,<br> there will be no thrice-<br> for then I find doors shut on me.<br><br> So I have learned many things, son.<br> I have learned to wear many faces<br> like dresses – homeface,<br><br> Gabriel Okara<br> Gabriel Okara<br> officeface, streetface, hostface,<br> cocktailface, with all their conforming smiles<br> like a fixed portrait smile.<br><br> And I have learned too<br> to laugh with only my teeth<br> and shake hands without my heart.<br> I have also learned to say,’Goodbye’,<br> when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:<br> to say ‘Glad to meet you’,<br> without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been<br> nice talking to you’, after being bored.<br><br> But believe me, son.<br> I want to be what I used to be<br> when I was like you. I want<br> to unlearn all these muting things.<br> Most of all, I want to relearn<br> how to laugh, for my laugh in the mirror<br> shows only my teeth like a snake’s bare fangs!<br><br> So show me, son,<br> how to laugh; show me how<br> I used to laugh and smile<br> once upon a time when I was like you.</pre>



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<p class="has-small-font-size">GABRIEL OKARA <em>(born Gabriel Imomotimi Okara on 24 April 1921)</em> was a Nigerian poet and a novelist who was born in <g class="gr_ gr_6 gr-alert gr_spell gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim ContextualSpelling ins-del multiReplace" id="6" data-gr-id="6">Bumoundi</g> in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Nigeria. His most famous works <g class="gr_ gr_7 gr-alert gr_gramm gr_inline_cards gr_run_anim Punctuation only-del replaceWithoutSep" id="7" data-gr-id="7">include:</g> <em>The Voice</em>(fiction, 1964), <em>The Fisherman’s Invocation</em> (poetry, 1978), <em>The Dreamer, His Vision</em> (poetry, 2005) and <em>An Adventure to Juju Island</em> (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<sup>th</sup> March 2019 aged 97 <em>[Source: Wikipedia].</em></p>
 
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ONCE UPON A TIME (A POEM) BY GABRIEL OKARA
