"Baz And Franklin Inadvertently Go Bananas" - A Poem for FRANKLIN KWAWU who passed July 2022 by Mark Barry - for a Friend and His Family...

For our Friend and his family - FRANKLIN KWAWU
Who passed 31 July 2022
A Poem by Mark Barry

          BAZ AND FRANKLIN INADVERTENTLY GO BANANAS

             (Laughing With Each Other And Not At Each Other)

A pasty-faced midriff Irishman and chubby-cheeked African American

Enter the South Woodford Odeon in 2008 with no idea of what’s on

Yet, in a flash-flood moment of on-the-go Mensa-level decision making

They settle on a movie poo-pooed by critics, but publicly beloved

Redoing the minor fleapit rounds. Yes folks – back by popular demand

It's Mamma Mia – a feature film with a lot of ABBA songs in it

A movie where a dungaree-clad Meryl Streep mulls over a Greek Island

Tragedy and the kind of fanny-fulfilling quandary that all ladies dread

(especially post the have-at-it-goer-years of old)

How do I navigate the triple-lock Shagathon that will be bonking senseless

Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgärd (yet again)

Without any of these three-possible-fathers knowing of their lost progeny

Who turned out to be an even bigger sea-and-sandals-sexpot than their mum…

Armed with triple-scoops of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream and Coke cartons

Bigger than Paraguay's national debt and King Kong's loving derriere

We quickly seat our late asses in the bat-blind disconcerting pitch black

But the moment the dappled-sea of the Mediterranean hits the screen

We notice that the small crowd of thirty or so are all Men decked out

In truly garish Seventies-period ABBA outfits complete with sequined 

Pink-heart belly-button cut-out crush-velvet onesies, feather boas

Handmade skinny knob-stems (as mikes) and PRIDE colour schemes…

Up comes the lyrics to the first song with a bouncing ball across the words

And the entire audience goes into mini-microphone waving routines

As they start laying into a full-throated Sound of Music Leicester Square

Type thing, because that's what it is, a Sing-Along Showing of Mamma Mia

Both Chunky Monkey and Banana Ripple Boys titter at their good luck

As we join in on what soon becomes an all-comers Disco Hootenanny…

I have many memories of Franklin like that, the two of us on the raz

Having a laugh, indulging in our dual passion for big-screen movies

And cool food accoutrements that sported way too many calories

And now he's gone, after years of cholesterol and heart complications

His grown-up kids Lauren and Selase mourning his loss on Facebook

Me sat there, with tears running down my face

But not like the tears of fun we had that night

When we were welcomed into their world and laughed ourselves silly

Alongside Trans Pop Music fans praising how well Frida and Agnetha

Have aged and aren't the music and fashion of Sweden just the best…

Originally from Ghana, and returned home to Africa in his final years

I have many memories of Franklin Kwawu, my unlikely pal, like that…

So, here's to the people who travel across oceans to better their lot

Who raise a family through thick and thin

Trek into work in the miserable rain, despite being worse for the wear

Here's to the risk-takers and mistake-makers and diversity jawbreakers

With their fuck-adversity determination to be true to themselves

Here's to friends chatting on a WhatsApp Video Call across continents

One now in a wheelchair, relearning speech after the first hobbling stroke

Here's to two very Hetro Types singing along with a troupe of very Gay Men

Laughing with each other and not at each other

The Dancing Queens and Super Troopers shaking their tailfeathers

Loving a Voulez Vous moment of pleasure 

So unexpected and acceptance divine

Here's to breaking down barriers, instinctive forward motion

To bringing cheer, to reaching out, remembering life at its best

Going loco, going nuts, going bananas with the best audience ever

Shedding skin in our drab picket-fence sexual stodginess

Here's to the young-at-heart and up-for-it friends, enjoying life's mess

Swimming towards the all-encompassing umbrella of Love

Stretching out to a no-chains-horizon

In a limitless sea...

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