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At snuff no Cornish sailorman would sneeze
When masons clutch the breath we held on loan
Her native chauffeur waited in the breeze
With cherry-pips his cottage floor is sown
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
The North Wind Bites into his architrave
The fertile mother changelings drops like kings
As sleeping-bags the silent landscape pave
Staunch pilgrims longest journeys can't depress
With quill white-collared through his life will jog
The colonel's still escutcheoned in undress
We'll suffocate before the epilogue
And let you off from your opinions glum
They're kings we're mammal-cousins hi ho hum


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.