100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
That horders of crooks felt they'd more right to own
Old corned-beef's rusty armour spreads disease
Which neither time nor tide can long postpone
How it suprised us pale grey underlings
That metred rhyme alone can souls enslave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
Lobsters for sale must be our apologue
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
A wise loaf always knows its humblest crumb


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.