100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
That horders of crooks felt they'd more right to own
He bent right down and well what did he seize
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
That every verbal shock aims to deprave
The genealogist with field and fess
Or grinning like a pale-faced golliwog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
The bell tolls fee-less fi-less fo-less fum


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.