Natural Order Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

A most peculiar BANG was heard one silent night:
Snap - Crackle - Pop, the echo sounded much the same.
The people in the Loetschenthaler Valley
sat up in featherbeds to see what might
have interrupted so the much-earned rest
of all the peasants.
And there surely was an ordinance against it.

Snap-Crackle_Pop...
and here it was again.
The Burgermeister sent the boy to ring
the churchbell, which,
for these occasions would alert
their sleeping fellow men.
Something was amiss,
so they assembled.

Thorough, is the nature of the Swiss.
Stubborn and inflexible does follow.
Black and white are colours not to miss.
All the others would be mixed, or rather scrambled.

Patience is a virtue with clear limits.
If the dog is teased 100 times,
it's the next one, just one more then,
that will truly overflow the bucket.
And the sounds that waken people can be heard.

Thus it was decided that Johanna
had that night advanced her foot an inch too far.
Women, although duly fit to vote and talk in public
would at times forget their nat'ral order.

The laws that govern these old-fashioned cultures
are firm.And hewn in place. And well respected.
The patriarch thus represents the total fairness
of not objecting when the others all agree.

So, Snap and Crackle, Pop will get attention.
It simply shows the index finger, raised.
Allow me, Dutch and Germans should be mentioned.
Their fuses are the same. Don't be amazed.