AshehougAgency

The Spirits Inspected Her

I am black-and-white

with a flower in my hair

like this I walk into a room, I sit down and scream

and eat, that’s what I do every day

with my natural white hair and the black body

I scream at God and He screams at me

we keep at it like this, the neighbours complain

He takes my flower and colours all of me

while I scream and I understand nothing

He is quiet now, I tell myself, quiet

then I eat

The Spirits Inspected Her is inspired by the Italian artist Margherita Manzelli’s powerful, vulnerable paintings of girl figures. Oftestad has written a poetry-collection which is sad, hopeful, grotesque and humourous: about girls in summer dresses who hide and emerge, who argue with God and with the world – and search for a place to be.

First published: 2008, Forlaget Oktober
Siri Amalie Oftestad: Biography and bibliography