#PoemReview: “Once Upon A Time” By Gabriel Okara

Emeka Nwakobi
 
Here comes another master poet; I dare say we are lucky to be partakers in his mastery. Notice how simple, prose like this poem reads, yet it does not lose the poetic flavor, remains glued in the manner akin to the strong assembly of poems. Okara holds a decent conversation with his readers (sons/daughters), he comes down on all of us, softly, and bestows on us the gift of this beautiful poetic tale thus;

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

He tells his son, about a point in time, somewhere in history, when people where people and didn’t shield their hearts in the coverings of mask. His longings come alive, his longings for those days when supposedly he was much younger and was treated fairly, with enormous amount of kindness. Once upon a time, he used to visit friends and relatives, and was welcomed warmly, even after the first visit, the warmth remains. But times change, and his hosts learns to shut their doors and play deaf to the knocks on their doors. He mourns the good old days, before he stopped being a child, before people learnt to laugh with their teeth, but not for long. He learns their ways, becomes even better in the art of pretense, of hypocrisy. Thus;

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 learnt many things, son

 

I have learned to wear many faces

Like dresses – homeface

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

A new tone of regret sets in, after conforming to the conventions the world has set before us all. After growing old and leaving behind the good old days, he wants to be like the way he used to be, he wants things to return back to what they used to be. He misses his old self, haven been far removed from himself. He wants to relearn all those simple things that seem now like magic, and if possible, unlearn this new treacherous ways that now bugs his humanity. We hear the sound of a deeper longing, and the quiet resignation to the unalterable condition thus;

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!

Okara brings this gorgeous poem that seems too short for its flavour and attitude to the soul, to a halt with very simple, yet complex request to his son. For how does one teach another to laugh, show them how they used to smile or laugh? Should one take their hand and point at a laughing person/people/pictures, and say this is how to smile/laugh? But in the end, we realize Okara is only saying, do it like I/we used to, let it return to the gracious way it used to be. Thus;

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 was a Nigerian poet and novelist, he died in March, 2019. Some of Okara’s most famous poems includes; “Piano and Drums,” “You Laughed and Laughed and Laughed.” He is a recipient of several awards and the first recipient of the NLNG Prize for Literature in 2005, for his collection of poetry, “The Dreamer, His Vision.”