Poems that explore womanhood and a womanas roots in the present and past. From the personal loss of her mother, the poet travels the road of her motheras roots and her own, sometimes painful (aThe sky, once comforting/rained hard brown snailsa!a), sometimes with joy (aBright white, the flat cat-shadow walks, /photo-negative against the sepia soila!a), and the coming to terms with life on lifeas terms.