My dear child, did your mother never tell you?

NOTHING  in this world is ever free

It was there, hidden all along in plain sight

Now you've gone and put yourself at their mercy for the remainder of your life

I sat down with their nefariously clever instrument of slavery

 I was lured by a return- unknowing of the severe capital required

"Sign after you've fully Read the Terms and Conditions," they told me

I skimmed the words and letters and paragraphs

But ultimately, rolled my eyes, scrolled down, and signed after clicking  "agree."

Who said words can never hurt you?

I'd like to sit down and have a few with them

Words can coil and twist themselves into sentences

which then create complex and complicated paragraphs,

misdirecting, misleading, confusing, and dilberately trying to make you lose interest in reading, deciphering, understanding them

So you assume their writers have your best interests in mind

and you skip the rest and sign

But then you look up

and see those words slide into the final knot of the noose

coiled ever so tightly around your neck

You struggle and claw and tear in frantic terror at the padlocked lariat

Praying they dont drop the suddenly visible trapdoor under your seat

But your hands only become raw, bloody masses of flesh

That now hang limply by your sides in defeat

You are so confused and hurt and scared

Your eyes scour theirs, beseeching mercy, clarification, explanation!

They sneer and shake their head with vicious, mocking, slicing laughter

You search your mind,

then understand; incredulous exhalation!

You see you did this to yourself;

You signed that forsaken legislation!

You just didn't understand the implications!

It was there all along, hidden in plain sight

In that obscure paragraph right in the middle

The clause that signed your freedom away forever

The phrase where you effectively sold your own words: your very life

They did their part; they told you to read

So tell me now, how is it their fault

if their sound advice you did not heed?