100,000,000,000,000 poems

The marble tomb gapes wide with jangling keys
For tea cucumber sandwiches a scone
The understanding critic firstly sees
That suede ferments is not at all well known
It's one of many horrid happenings
Whose ocean still-born herrings madly brave
In salads all chew grubs before they've wings
The nicest kids for strickiest toffees crave
Platonic Greece was not so talentless
A bird-brain banquet melts bold Mistress Mog
To prove mamma an adult with a tress
No need to cart such treasures from the fog
Do bank clerks rule their abacus by thumb
In cognac brandy is Bacardi rum?


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.