100,000,000,000,000 poems

Don Pedro from his shirt has washed the fleas
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
It's one of many horrid happenings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
The genealogist with field and fess
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
And let you off from your opinions glum
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.