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‘The Walking Man:’ Beloved Homeless Man Set on Fire

By Sarah Menefee
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Beloved homeless man in Chicago was doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire while sleeping.
Joseph Kromelis with his family (Joseph is second from the left)

for Joseph Kromelis

a homeless man 75
known around the North Side of Chicago
as The Walking Man (and much beloved)
was doused with gasoline and set aflame 
and burned nearly to death
in this bedroll while he slept
near Trump Tower
that’s all: set on fire in his bedroll
next to Trump Tower
this is my poem from the front
of the War on the Poor
today on Memorial Day

See article from Block Club Chicago about this tragedy at:
https://blockclubchicago.org/2022/05/30/man-charged-with-setting-walking-man-on-fire-showed-a-special-kind-of-evil-prosecutors-say/?fbclid=IwAR1QVLKGkpNQwXlPdj6ixZS89kcOQl0mOtDkrpsaXOMznAs_0650JU0Cbhw

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San Francisco poet Sarah Menefee is a long-time homeless rights activist. She is the Homeless Desk on the People’s Tribune Editorial Board. She is a founding member of the League of Revolutionaries for a New America, the Revolutionary Poets Brigade and 'First they came for the homeless'. Her latest collections of poetry are Human Star and CEMENT.

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

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