Probably far better off sleeping with sea anemones
than waking everyday to an intake of CNNemies.
All hope isn’t lost. We can see a few remedies
in freedom embedded in technology’s tenancies.
When the NSA issues a new decree of felonies
and tries to keep it checked, along with our l-m-n-o-p’s,
we keep it out of sequence and blanket it with an element of keys
so the monitor of all communications can’t perceive what it reads.
We’re all fucking criminals, but only some of us are chosen
to be examples when your little terms of service end up broken.
Rest in peace Aaron Swartz, and live in peace Edward Snowden.
Shoutouts to everyone else who’s paying more than they’re owing.
When intelligent civil disobedience hits congress
they’ll have to do a little more than wait-list the watch-list.
We’re millions strong and can’t stop putting nails in your coffins.
We are anonymous and we keep our names out your log-ins.
Hannibal Lecture is a prolific and fast-rising Canadian poet from British Columbia’s smoky interior. Drawing inspiration from real life – whether it be those rare and covetous joyous moments, the absurdities of inane convention, or the harrowing ordeals that plague the human condition – Lecture speaks to all of these, and is thus a renewing force to a noble medium. “Terms of Service” was previously published in his poetry collection Arguments With Mortality (Alanna Rusnak Publishing, 2017).
