RIP Nick

I sort of knew Nick. This bench  is a block away from 87th & Cicero, and he'd be sitting there most every day, at different times. The bench is in Lewandowski Arboretum, which runs a block wide and from 87th to 92nd Street, the top shot with the full moon has some of the trees there. (Now that was a Chicago sentence.) He was always drunk, the people he knew were drunks, and about a week after the Oak Lawn coppers took the placards down, I "encountered" one of the drunks as I was unlocking my bike at Dominicks. He told me the details, even though I didn't ask, didn't care. I had two scenarios in my head, and it was the first. Fell asleep smoking a cigarette. First time I saw the sign I imagined burning flesh. What can I say?