viral strain in poetry

back in our day
back in the Nineties
the memes were SO much less potent
if someone was passing around a little
“Mr. T Ate My Balls” at a rock concert
if someone brought a nickel bag of
“All Your Base Are Belong To Us”
to the shed out behind the high school
nobody got hurt
it was all just fun and games
it wasn’t addictive at all
it was fine
everything was fine
in the old days of the internet

the memes these days though
they’re totally hydroponic
they’re cooked up in modern laboratories
they’re shipped in from British Columbia
the kids these days
it’s just too much
it’s killing their minds
with gifs jpgs and Vines
passed along in untraceable Snapchats
oh man the memes these days
there oughta be a law
not like us not like us
we get to pretend that
it was so much less potent back then
that is the advantage of age
we get to judge the viral
in our own way strained