100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
Through snobbish growing round her hemline zone
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
And loudly sang off-key without a tone
They both are right not untamed mutterings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
Proud death quite il-le-gi-ti-mate-ly stings
That every verbal shock aims to deprave
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
One tongue will do to keep the verse agog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Southern baroque's seductive dialogue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
yet from the City's pie pulled not one plum


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.