Once Upon a Time by Gabriel Okara (Text & Summary)

See the full poem text and summary of Once Upon a Time by Gabriel Okara (in stanzas and lines) and download the PDF with likely questions and answers.

Stanza 1

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

Stanza 2

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

Stanza 3

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

Stanza 4

19. So I have learned many things, son.
20. I have learned to wear many faces
21. like dresses – home face,
22. office face, street face, host face,
23. cocktail face, with all their conforming smiles
24. like a fixed portrait smile.

Stanza 5

25. And I have learned too
26. to laugh with only my teeth

Stanza 6

27. and shake hands without my heart.
28. I have also learned to say, ‘Goodbye’,
29. when I mean ‘Good-riddance’:
30. to say ‘Glad to meet you’,
31. without being glad; and to say ‘It’s been
32. nice talking to you’, after being bored.

Stanza 7

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

Stanza 8

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

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