100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
The bull's horns ought to dry it like a bone
His toga rumpled high above his knees
Normal one aims to be and share the throne
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
And let you off from your opinions glum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.