100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
It's one of many horrid happenings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
The fertile mother changelings drops like kings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
With gravity at gravity's great cog
And played their mountain croquet jungle chess
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
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.