The Suicide Parties Poem by John Courtney

cat tails walk
on closet light
left on what
were white walls
before big city
shut them off

on the floor
angels are small
change to each other

each gazes like
a ribbon sails
on blank beaches
near birth and

birth is crying
at the top of a needle

they feed on
on solid cheese
in the room
of dank hollow
art school summers

a river pipe
creates songs
for other birds
to sing

strangers call
to lost kittens
as high heels
claw miserably
into silence

a world looms
on fancy shoes
as death edges
its way past morning
where dogs walk away

downtown dancers
string together
enough money for
upstream blood

I watched as a
train door opened

I watched as a
train door closed