100,000,000,000,000 poems

The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
Which neither time nor tide can long postpone
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
Were pots graffiti'd over by a slave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
The country lane just thrives on farmyard mess
But I can understand you Brogher Gog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
The bell tolls fee-less fi-less fo-less fum


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.