100,000,000,000,000 poems

He bent right down to pick up his valise
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
The Turks said just take anything you please
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
They both are right not unformed smatterings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The wolf devours both sheep and shepherdess
In indian summers Englishmen drink grog
While homeward thirsts to each quenched glass say yes
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
On fish-slab whale nor seal has never swum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.