100,000,000,000,000 poems

He bent right down to pick up his valise
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
The roundabout eats profits made on swings
Nought can the mouse's timid nibbling stave
Such merchandise a melancholy brings
As sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
With gravity at gravity's great cog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
One misses cricket hearth and croaking frog
Poor reader smile before your lips go numb
The best of all things to an end must come


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.