100,000,000,000,000 poems

At five precisely out went La Marquise
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
Her native chauffeur waited in the breeze
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
In indian summers Englishmen drink grog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
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.