100,000,000,000,000 poems

Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
The understanding critic firstly sees
That suede ferments is not at all well known
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
Poetic licence needs no strain or stress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
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.