100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
The Turks said just take anything you please
Normal one aims to be and share the throne
They both are right not untamed mutterings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
The learning linguist cameramaniac sings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
The country lane just thrives on farmyard mess
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
They're kings we're mammal-cousins hi ho hum


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.