100,000,000,000,000 poems

Prose took the minstrel's verse without a squeeze
The answer is they could be twins full-grown
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
It's one of many horrid happenings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
Thou homestead hillside woodland rock and cave
When dried the terrapin can naught express
In indian summers Englishmen drink grog
And played their mountain croquet jungle chess
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
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.