100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
The understanding critic firstly sees
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
The learning linguist cameramaniac sings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
The genealogist with field and fess
Shallots and sharks'fins face the smould'ring log
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
And let you off from your opinions glum
Soliloquies predict great things old chum


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.