100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
Through snobbish growing round her hemline zone
The understanding critic firstly sees
Normal one aims to be and share the throne
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
Poetic licence needs no strain or stress
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
For Europe's glory while Fate's harpies strum


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.