100,000,000,000,000 poems

At five precisely out went La Marquise
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
To one sweet hour of bliss my memory clings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
Poor Yorick comes to bury not address
But I can understand you Brogher Gog
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
A wise loaf always knows its humblest crumb


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.