Only You Can Hear It

         And when you came into the world you had only one privilege and that was the right to howl. And even if you howled too loud or too long someone or something would come along with a big stick and close your mouth. And it was like that even at the end. So you clench your teeth and you do your howling inside where only you can hear it.

Swamp Sister
Robert Edmond Alter
1961

                 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/436132.Swamp_Sister