100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
He bent right down and well what did he seize
Normal one aims to be and share the throne
They both are right not untamed mutterings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
Till firemen come with hose-piped tidal wave
Emboggled minds may puff and blow and guess
A bird-brain banquet melts bold Mistress Mog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
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.