100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
Through snobbish growing round her hemline zone
The showman gargles fire and sword with ease
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
As sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave
The wolf devours both sheep and shepherdess
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Suits lisping Spanish tongues for whom say some
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.