100,000,000,000,000 poems

At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
That horders of crooks felt they'd more right to own
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
When flame a form to wrath ancestral gave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Where no one bothered how one warmed one's bum
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.