What A Fragment Is by Shari O' Brien You ask me how I could get through high school. Without learning what a fragment is. Go east. Across the foul-smelling river. To where the refineries belch and defecate. Passed the boarded-up Dollar Store On the corner where kids go get high. Passed the greasy windows of Al’s Bar and Grille. Go north a block and turn left. Passed the houses slouched on their lots Like tired whores and used-up crack heads. That joyless-looking sagging building with three busted-out windows? With them ragged shrugs? That one there. Where you got a B By showing up most days, an A for staying awake. That’s my school. Where we went. With our broken lives. Where I never did catch on. To what A fragment is. Shari O’ Brien |