100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
That horders of crooks felt they'd more right to own
Upon his old oak chest he cuts his cheese
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The wolf devours both sheep and shepherdess
A bird-brain banquet melts bold Mistress Mog
While homeward thirsts to each quenched glass say yes
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Though bretzels take the dols from board-room drum
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.