100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
The Turks said just take anything you please
While sharks to let's say potted shrimps are prone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
Th'outrageous Thames a troubled arrow slings
To break a rule Britannia's might might waive
The genealogist with field and fess
A piercint wit would sprightliest horses flog
From cool Parnassus down to wild Loch Ness
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
And let you off from your opinions glum
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.