Gabriel Okara's Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time by GABRIEL OKARA 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, 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.
Comment [C1]: Connotations of a fairytale, Possibly such a long time ago that is seems as if it almost never happened. Comment [C2]: Family member talking to another family member, Most likely father-son. Comment [C3]: Plural, small groups perhaps, a group of others. It’s vague – as if they are all the same. Comment [C4]: Past tense, to show this has happened but doesn’t anymore. Comment [C5]: A joyful word, connotations of happy. Comment [C6]: Connotations of love, this shows that when they laugh it is meaningful. Comment [C7]: You use your eyes to see, so to laugh with their eyes relates to the visibility to see that it is