A BUM RIP

was graffiti’d on the side of a building near the now-demolished Chicago Tribune distribution center in massive red letters. I was fond of this graffiti, and would occasionally admire it from the bridge as I was passing by it. Three words, seven letters total, made me wonder who the bum was that deserved such a eulogy. And who this bum was survived by, that was passionate enough to commemorate his friend in such an eponym as simply “a bum”. Now, the building demolished, the laconic obituary gone too. Perhaps his name was Jack O’Hara, and perhaps he was a drunk.