Sense Sonnet - Steamer

Take the Word

An offshoot of the hacking threat
Is the hackee getting blackmailed.
Sounds like a racist term - but yet
From old Scotland the term has hailed.
"Mail" was Anglo/Norse for tribute
Which poor farmers were forced to pay,
So that plunderers would not loot.
White mail was silver in that day.
Farmers mainly paid off in black.
Things of some worth like grain and stock.
Those who did not pay got the hack,
Which meant back then a body shock.

If you are hacked, then blackmailed today,
The more your secrets, the more you'll pay.