100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
The Turks said just take anything you please
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
With gravity at gravity's great cog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
Though bretzels take the dols from board-room drum
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.