“With No Experience In Such Matters”

This poem by Stephen Dunn makes you think a little bit. It is filled with wordplays in my opinion because it talks about two situations that both result in death. It starts out with talking about holding a damaged sparrow under water until you let it die, because the cat injured it to begin with.

While reading this, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot remember ever having something die in my hands like Dunn describes. I wouldn’t know how to react or what to do really if I was holding an animal in my arms while it was dying, do i go get help or do i just let it die there in peace, is it in pain? All of these questions would come running through my head, and i just wouldn’t know what to do. Then Dunn describes pulling the plug on your Dad while he is dying in the hospital. I could never imagine doing that unless, it was to take him out of pain and to leave him in peace, because that would still one of the hardest decisions you would ever have to make.