(Nano Reid, oil on board)

In the citizenry of the dead
the soul still holds the shape of the body
still weighs a human care as a body
bent low.

The good ascend with no sign
of remorse, still bearing the marks
of skin, of bone.

Hell is local. Heaven is the landscape
of home. Christ stands among the ruins
where there is no water flowing

in a valley of stone.

Leeanne Quinn's collection Before You was published by Dedalus Press in 2012. Today's poem is from her new collection, Some Lives (Dedalus)