100,000,000,000,000 poems

From playboy Chance the nymph no longer flees
His nasal ecstasy beats best Cologne
Replies like this the dumbstruck brain may tease
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
Old Galileo's Pisan offerings
Signalling gauchos very rarely shave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
The genealogist with field and fess
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
With breaking voice across the Alps they slog
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.