14. SILENCED ...

14.

Silenced she sank easily through deeps under deeps

of darkness until she lay like a stone at the farthest

bottom of life, knowing herself to be blind, deaf,

speechless, no longer aware of the members of her

own body, entirely withdrawn from all human concerns,

yet alive with a peculiar lucidity and coherence; all

notions of the mind, the reasonable inquiries of doubt,

all ties of blood and the desire of the heart, dissolved

and fell away from her, and there remained of her only

a minute fiercely burning particle of being that knew

itself alone, that relied upon nothing beyond itself for

its strength; not susceptible to any appeal or inducement,

being itself composed entirely of one single motive, 

the stubborn desire to live.    

  

{Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider}