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The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
The Turks said just take anything you please
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
O Parthenon you hold the charger's strings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
For burning bushes never fish forgave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
The country lane just thrives on farmyard mess
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
They're kings we're mammal-cousins hi ho hum


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.