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
And empty cages show life's bird has flown
The frisian Isles my friends are cherised things
Rejecting ermine to become a knave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
The fasting fakir doesn't smell the less
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
Watching manure and compost coalesce
Their sculptors did our best our hulks the clog
The Taj Mahal has trinkets spice and gum
And lessors' dates have all too short a sum


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.