100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
They both are right not untamed mutterings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
The fertile mother changelings drops like kings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
The genealogist with field and fess
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
The country lane just thrives on farmyard mess
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Where no one bothered how one warmed one's bum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.