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The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Upon his old oak chest he cuts his cheese
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
A daring baron pockets precious Mings
That every verbal shock aims to deprave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
With gravity at gravity's great cog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
Though bretzels take the dols from board-room drum
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.