100,000,000,000,000 poems

The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
That suede ferments is not at all well known
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
Were pots graffiti'd over by a slave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
Lobsters for sale must be our apologue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
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.