100,000,000,000,000 poems

The wild horse champs the Parthenon's top frieze
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
The learning linguist cameramaniac sings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
A bird-brain banquet melts bold Mistress Mog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
Though bretzels take the dols from board-room drum
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.