100,000,000,000,000 poems

The acid tongue with gourmet's expertise
Since Elgin left his nostrils in the stone
Upon his old oak chest he cuts his cheese
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
Filching the lolly country thrift helped save
A daring baron pockets precious Mings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The peasants's skirts on rainy days she'd tress
With gravity at gravity's great cog
And played their mountain croquet jungle chess
Bard I adore your endless monologue
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
For Europe's glory while Fate's harpies strum


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.