The Nearest Smile Are These Tears Poem by Padmore Enyonam Agbemabiese

I'm not so young but not so very old either
yet, I have walked since dawn
praying not to distress the hearts of Bees
along this way to the Ivory Tower

I have heard it said in songs of pious men who
in your presence are gentle like a lamb
but in your absence are like a man devouring a wolf

in this stony blackened field
where on fat long chairs are Owls and Ghosts
you’ll hope your old bones will still work
looking all so beautiful so young

but, down to the last best Owl and Ghost
we live in a Land of Darkness
where the journey of every young child to the Tower
is from disappointed Hopes to frustrated Desires
where they reap no other Fruit but Pain
and the nearest smile are the tears in their bosom