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The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
With gravity at gravity's great cog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
Lobsters for sale must be our apologue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
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.