in olden times it was nobles

force was feudal and clear

your son taken to their war

droit de seigneur was fear

 

to poach meant a hanging

roughshod soldiers arms

lords took stock and crops

from villeins' mean farms

 

they snatch your data now

surveillance made routine,

drive or walk you're never

far from a monitor screen

 

no cruel noble ever knew

what modern barons see,

we serfs dutifully comply

give what once was free

 

they saw men at arms ride

their enemy loud and clear,

techno-lords push buttons

on freedoms once so dear

 

not the forest to rereat to

nor aid from Robin Hood,

algorithms killing Magna

Carta, liberty, dead wood