100,000,000,000,000 poems

The wild horse champs the Parthenon's top frieze
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
The understanding critic firstly sees
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
Where no one bothered how one warmed one's bum
For Europe's glory while Fate's harpies strum


Raymond Queneau

Translation to English by Stanley Chapman
found in "Oulipo Compendium"
Atlas 1998, ISBN 0-947757-96-1

Idea and implementation by Magnus Bodin 1997
Produced in the wonderful country of Sweden.