ROOTS

'I closed my eyes and imagined her in a long, black dress
She turned and looked towards the sky
Sher raised her arms upwards to catch
the air, the sun and the clouds. Her arms turned to wings
But when the wind lifted her heavy, black dress
I saw that she had roots in the place of feet
Powerful roots reaching deeply into the earth
I realised that she would never fly'

excerpt from Ana Rodic's 'ROOTS' (2000); taken from Asne Seierstad's With Their Backs to the Worlds (2004)