Disney's Dead Inside

Mickey's eyes have lost their sparkle

Minnie's stalking Meghan Markle

Donald Duck's schizophrenic

Frenzied, fiery, fricking frenetic

Snow White's on the special cola

Elsa's not of sound mind.

Belle's bipolar-

Such a bind.

Winnie The Pooh's having a wobble

Cinderella's got the Collywobbles

Ariel's at breaking point,

Why-hard to pinpoint.

Princess Jasmine feels just fine

Or so you'd think, from looking online.

Olaf's OCD is off the chart

Channeling pain into snowy art.

Rapunzel's on a cocktail of drugs

When she all she needs is a massive hug.

Pluto's on Prozac

So watch your back.

Goofy's got PTSD

Gaston's got the blues

Cinderella's lost her sparkly shoes

Anna's anorexia -what's it to you?

Sugarcoated hopes and dreams

Cute fluffy kittens

And motivational memes

It's time make-believe died.

When Disney is dead inside.

© Katy Konrad

Disney deletes 'Dead Inside' Pinocchio tweet

Katy Konrad lives in the North West. She has performed at Callander Poetry Festival in Scotland twice. Her poem ‘Totality’ was published by Silver Birch Press in 2017.

I Beg Your Pardon

Although a baptised Catholic
- non practising, I confess -
I always found it strange
that the Church of Rome
was resistant to change.
Its views on women priests
and the ban on birth control
are truly symptomatic
of a religious creed
whose tenets are dogmatic.
So what are we to make
of indulgences being offered
to followers of Tweets
of the current pontiff?
All I can think is LOL:
it doesn’t happen often
that the Vatican softens.

© Luigi Pagano

Vatican offers 'time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets

Luigi Pagano is a contributor to Poetry 24. He has published three printed collections of his poems and his work has been showcased in several anthologies.

Poetry24 Tweets!

To launch Poetry24

on Twitter we asked

people to come up with

some topical poems in

140 characters or less.

Or, as we put it:

Alert the media – send us tweets!
We’re ‘live’ online & in the streets
of virtual reality
with ‘of-the-minute’ poetry.

Or, as @ClareKirwan said: Things can't possibly get worse / unless we do the news in VERSE

Here are some of our favourites:

From @pchallinor

Big Society,
Tory piety,
Clegg anxiety
Public rioty.

He also reckoned:

The biggest rats in Downing Street
Cannot be killed by cats, I tweet.

But @69wurdz disagreed

Downing Street rats...
in ironed cravats.
Puppet committee...
twisting the news.
Balaclava kitty...
tightens the noose. ~

This one, from @jhon_calrk

Pity the squaddie head down in his trench
To lose his allowance would be such a wrench

Which sparked @ClareKirwan off again:

Pity the librarians all by their shelves
while the Tories only help those who can help themselves

From @ObsidianSnow

Shut the Libraries,kill the Trees,
cut the NHS,raise Tuition fees.
Cuts,cuts & then cut some more,
Tory policy we've all seen before

From @jhon_calrk

You must support me says Red Ed
I did said the grannie & now I'm dead

As you may imagine from the emphasis on British politics, this was all taking place during Prime Minister's Question Time (PMQT) which inspired another from @pchallinor

Pee Em Kew Tee.
Smirk and patronise, then flee.

and, probably this one too:

Big Society and more:
Kill the sick and eat the poor

If you're on Twitter, follow us at @Poetry24blog. If you're not on Twitter - why not try to pen your own topical ditty in 140 characters or less in the comments?