There you have it. Something like Axiomatic Economics has been done before. The only difference is, instead of pitchforks and torches, modern peasantsare armed with computers. And they are not called "peasants" anymore. They are called "bloggers."


Ironman
by Victor Aguilar

“The king is omniscient!  He knows everything!”
He doesn’t know how to build a trebuchet, I think,
Rotating the beam around a fixed axle is not right,
So I built a floating-arm treb and with it I did plink.

They fired too big a stone and broke their treb,
“The walls are too thick, we can’t knock them down!”
I went to the king’s court, bowing low as is the custom,
He sat, sneering, in purple robes; he looked like a clown.

He wouldn’t even meet my eyes.  Arrogant fool!
I showed him my treb and offered to build a big one,
To my surprise, he agreed and ordered the lumber,
He needed much guidance until the job was done.

Now he calls it “his design.”  His sycophants applaud,
As my treb smashes the enemy castle to the ground,
On payday I was given the wages of a common laborer,
No more than the shovelmen who built the mound.

So I diverted a river and flooded his army camp,
His knights slipped and fell on the muddy ground,
Their armor filled with water, they could not rise,
In an hour all the king’s heavy infantry had drowned.

Now I live in the forests, pursued all over the land,
They say that my inventions are the work of the devil,
It’s true that I construct booby traps for my pursuers,
But the designs are mine alone; my soul I did not sell.

They think anything they don’t understand is magic,
And, frankly, there’s a lot that they don’t understand,
I’m no magician; I’ve received no help from the devil,
All of my killing machines I built with my own hand.

I was driven to this life!  I might’ve been benevolent,
And invented labor-saving devices to ease their load,
If only there had been a place for scientists in society,
But it wasn’t to be.  Instead, my wrath they did goad.

To escape the king, I invented a time machine,
I was turned to steel in the great magnetic field,
Like Icarus, who flew too close to the sun,
I traveled to a neutron star; Ironman it did yield.

I am not a monster!  I am a benevolent scientist!
I always wanted to improve the future of mankind,
But nobody wants me!  Scientists get no respect,
So under my lead boots, their pathetic lives I grind.

Note:  This poem was inspired by the Ozzy song.