There are no words to describe the silence that follows. I can only say this: I’ve never been stabbed. But now I can imagine how it feels. The blade slides in with such precision, such sharpness that at first, there’s no pain – not even a full realization of what has transpired. Then slowly, as it recedes, the dawning occurs - a shocking, detached understanding of one’s own frailty. And with it comes the evidence that life is now free to flow from the body, painfully and unchecked, until there’s nothing left to give.