100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
The Turks said just take anything you please
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
He's gone to London how the echo rings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
A piercint wit would sprightliest horses flog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
And let you off from your opinions glum
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


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.