Friday, May 31, 2019

Mental Health Awareness Month - A Poem Boys Will Be Boys


Boys Will Be Boys – Delusion Portrayed in “State Fair”

When you see a classic movie
Several times, you think more things.

The opening dialog in the movie State Fair
Follows pictures of a red sports car
That speeds across farm country
And stops at a farm.  A girl stands up out of the car
Slams the door and tells the driver off.
She does not like the reckless way he drives.
A dress with a pastel gathered skirt,
layered cut, boys will be boys.

I have never owned a car, Maybe I
Do not know.  I go on with the poem.

A small waist, a thin chain
On her neck with a little pendant.
She walks to the porch.  At top speed
Her boyfriend maneuvers the car around
And back to the country highway.
Young Frake and his reckless driving. 
Then there is plot development .

The sequel to State Fair, in 1953,
Replaced trotting horses with race cars.

Young Frake encounters a nemesis.
A pro in the Pro / Am.  The sports car
Will be in the Pro / Am
Auto race.  Bested Last Year,
This year he, the good guy Amateur,
Will win.  And the bad guy Pro guy
That exploiter, will be the loser
Young Frake is determined.

In the 1932 novel by Phil Stong, Young Frake’s
Sister says, “a bit of a Looney
Our  Wayne…”  Wayne Frake daydreams
In a world of his own.
He rides honored city wide
In a tickertape parade.  The farm family
In the country are far away,
Transparent and nebulous.

In the 1945 movie Young Frake at the midway
Has practiced the ring toss
All winter and  wins, creating friction
With the ring toss booth manager.
At a party, he socks someone.
In 1962 Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn,
And Pat Boone are among eighteen film stars
Presented to Queen Elizabeth at a reception
That preceded a London premiere of West Side Story.

Before Leonard Bernstein’s  achievement
Of Shakespeare overwhelms in a no-contest
Movies contest, it is Rodgers and Hammerstein
That achieves the Midwest Depression
Novelist, Phil Stong, a treatment of A sordid tale. 
An internet reference:
The critics call State Fair only Fair,
But it has gained a cult following
There I am, one of them.

Social comment and comic relief
When the Veterinarian  brings meds for Blue Boy,
The pig.  “Eleven Dollars?
The whole family could end up bankrupt
We can’t afford to have a traumatic pig.”
Mrs. Frake is acting cynical.

On the library DVD, over the search lights
Of 20th Century Fox, the voice of Pat Boone
Says, Hello Friends!  It is the
Narration feature.  I disagree as Pat Boone
Dismisses Young Frake’s behavior
as Puppy Love – It is boys will be boys.
State Fair, the novel, the movies, the music
Characterize Young Frake In a delusional state. 

His driving is reckless.  He encounters
A beautiful woman, the delusion
Becomes Erotomania as he steps
Over a line to the orchestra area to look
at the dancer,  star struck.  He  just met her.
The movie’s glamour, however,
Beauty and perfection override any idea that
This is in a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry.

Normal falls, one side of a line or over.
The behavior is not so far over the line
From normal.  But normal is Boys
Will Be Boys.   Mother Frake casts a slur,
Trash.   What did Mrs. Frake Mean by “trash”? 
A cruel, effective slur against
Sexual behavior.  She turned Emily
(Ann Margret) into mincemeat,
She won the fair plaque in that category.

“It’s just like mother says,” cloudless
from a speaker near the river and pasture.
Anita Gordon must have Prerecorded
for Pamela Tiffin specifically.
”It Might As Well Be Spring” becomes
“Mother?” in loss at the slur.
The narrative has explained the song “That’s For Me”
Was prerecorded.  Pat Boone was very young

And really enjoyed doing the scene
with acrobatics at the Texas Grandstand.

A class about mental health
Describes normal as points that fall
To one side or the other of a line.
Young Frake is over the line.
The erotomania.  The unexpected

Graffiti Young Frake paints on the race car.
The Unexpected engagement ring.
The two cars fight instead of race
And run off the track.  Later:  I wonder
If the Pro can sue Young Frake. Pat Boone
says Ann Margret Began to show the talent
She was developing as an actress
In the scenes they did together.

When you see a classic movie several times
You think more things.  I saw State Fair
August 11, 1962, in my junior high school
Diary.  And a poem has more sections.
The poem has more sections,
1968, and 1964, and 1963.

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