100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
That suede ferments is not at all well known
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
A daring baron pockets precious Mings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
But I can understand you Brogher Gog
Ventriloquists be blowed you strike me dumb
Fried grilled black pudding's still the world's best yum


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.