For All Voices, For All Victims [In Response To Stories At The TRC] By Antjie Krog

Because of you this country no longer lies between us but within it breathes becalmed after being wounded in its wondrous throat
in the cradle of my skull
it sings, it ignites
my tongue, my inner ear, the cavity of heart shudders towards the outline new in soft intimate clicks and gutturals
of my soul the retina learns to expand daily because by a thousand stories
I was scorched a new skin
I am changed for ever. I want to say: forgive me forgive me forgive me
You whom I have wronged, please take me with you.