100,000,000,000,000 poems

The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
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
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
They both are right not unformed smatterings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
A piercint wit would sprightliest horses flog
And played their mountain croquet jungle chess
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
And let you off from your opinions glum
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.