In restless dreams I browsed alone
Narrow memes of low quality
'Neath the halo of a monitor
I turned my eyes to the blurry screen
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a pixel light
That split the night
And touched the artifacts of JPEG

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand memes, maybe more
People reposting without sharing
People uploading without caring
People posting things that eyes once saw
And no one dared
Disturb the artifacts of JPEG

“Fools”, said I, “You do not know
JPEG like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my files that I might reach you”
But my words, like silent raindrops, fell
And echoed in the blur of JPEG

And the people bowed and prayed
To the JPEG god they made
And the website flashed out its repost
In the words that it was compressing
And the website said, “The answer to your query
Is lost in the data
And it’s all in the artifacts of JPEG”