Variations on a Theme of Moe, Larry & Curly by Joel Stein

1.
It's three imbecile stew!
Cookin' up a Mess on the NJ Transit express:
M. "Fascist-Bangs-Head" Howard, as conductor
L. "Porcupine-Head" Fine as Trainman
And C. "Knucklehead [a.ka. "Chowderhead"]" Howard as Rear Brakeman…
Watch as they muck up 1,843
Derelict, deranged commuters
Blindly flying through the Meadowlands
Of eternal damnation, just as Knucklehead finds
A pineapple on a soundstage ca. `32
"That's no pineapple---it's a grenade!!"
Yea holiest of imbeciles
Thou tookest me illiterally, says he
Forsake that misbegotten fruit of hell
And enter thou the fair land of hot dames
And eternal cold brewskies..."

And the story goes on
Into the war of 1812
Cannonball fusillade continuous de jour
The three grand vizars arrive
Seeking the eternal Good to which all things aim.
And come out of it at the wrong end
Of the gods' canon and shifts suddenly to
WWII at the eastern front
Spies for the Wehrmacht
Running amok with laughing gas
Easing pain wherever they go
Skulls hilarious detrementious .

2.
Trivalent forms generally fall
Into three molecular variations
Depending upon energy states
And entropic tendencies
In the outer shells, with electropositive forms
Linking up into extended crystal lattices
Inconceivable at first when polarized
But then recognizable in polymorphic
Suits awaiting the decay cycle of Shemp;
Extensions along the rue de la Slick.

3.
Grace
Was said and then they dove right in
It was survival of the strongest or stupidest or stubbornnest or something.

Tripartite stool
One leg gone and the two fall from grace
And spies spill pies all over the place

Where he lives who cannot be named
Only blamed,
Only inferred.

4.
In his youth
Curly was much abused
And sought countenance among the shades
Of comedic counselors long lost.
But Moe struck and Larry winced.
The rest is edited montage of false blows and staged
Grace.

The Being of Curly:
Coming into the presence of Curly
Or the Not-Curly
Or the Essent of Curly
The Moe proves therefore that the Curly is
Until the Larry refutes that argument
For which he is soundly beaten.

5.
I'll take two burgers, some fries
And…and ah..a chocolate malt…mmmmm:
Alls we got, Bub, is oyster stew:
Ok, I'll have the oyster stew!
We're out of that too…
So it goes.
This is hell in a market economy.
Oh question Not the Need!
For the daily fare demands these three
without their diversions
We'd wake up screaming in our own bloody
Vomitus, clawing these very walls
of their crudescent denials.

6.
The call comes in.
We pack our gear.
We're ready to go, captain.
Our chariots chafe at their warming gates.

It's off to Zombie Castle
Voodoo Palace
The House of prodigal Mummies
Long lost
and now found
by virtue of the holiest
innocence
The Father, The Brother and the Holy
Imbecile.


7.
Even in death
One must smile.

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