100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


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.