100,000,000,000,000 poems

The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
That horders of crooks felt they'd more right to own
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
They both are right not untamed mutterings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
With gravity at gravity's great cog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
A wise loaf always knows its humblest crumb


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.