100,000,000,000,000 poems

When one with t'other straightaway agrees
Licks round carved marble chops on snails full-blown
Forms shadowy with indecision wheeze
The thumb- and finger-prints of Al Capone
Oh how oh how he hates such pilferings
Were pots graffiti'd over by a slave
An icicle of frozen marrow pings
Etruscan words which Greece and Rome engrave
It's no good rich men crying Heaven Bless
What things we did we went the whole darned hog
Socrates watched his hemlock effervesce
Whiskey will always wake an Irish bog
With marble souvenirs then fill a slum
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.