100,000,000,000,000 poems

He bent right down to pick up his valise
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
One gathers rosebuds or grows old alone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
With sombre thoughts they grimly line the nave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
In purest cradels tha's how they behave
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
And starve the sniveling baby like a dog
Poor Yorick comes to bury not address
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
Fried grilled black pudding's still the world's best yum


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.