Down to My Last Skin: Poems

This is the first collection of Antjie Krog’s poetry to appear in English, and it cements her reputation as one of South Africa’s greatest poets. Down to My Last Skin is her poetic exploration of her different identities, the layers that make the human condition so intricate, fragile and yet resilient.

The collection is divided into seven clear sections which explore layers in Krog’s life, and those in every individual.
Down to My Last Skin was the inaugural winner of the FNB Vita Poetry Award in 2000.

From Down to My Last Skin, p80

(n) neither family nor friends says Lady Anne

tonight everything speaks through the dead
towards me
your brittle bundle of bones
my longestloved beloved
lies lonely and longingly cradled somewhere lost
and lean
I am overwhelmingly awake tonight
of me so little has become
you are all I had in this world
beloved deathling
alone and cold it is behind my ribs
Africa had me giving up all
it is so dark
it is so bleak
soft beloved taunter
of me so little has become
I am down
to my last skin