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[00:17.04]Oh Carissa, when I first saw you,
[00:20.78]you were a lovely child
[00:23.72]And the last time I saw you,
[00:26.06]you were fifteen and pregnant and running wild
[00:30.84]I remember wondering,
[00:33.34]could there be a light at the end of your tunnel?
[00:38.21]But I left Ohio then
[00:41.70]and pretty much forgotten all about you
[00:45.84]I guess you were
[00:47.03]there some years ago at a family funeral
[00:52.06]But you were one of so many relatives
[00:56.06]I didn't know which one was you
[01:00.99]Yesterday morning I woke up to so many,
[01:04.88]330 area code calls
[01:08.57]I called my mom back and she was in tears
[01:12.36]and asked had I spoke to my father
[01:15.44]Carissa burned to death last night
[01:19.07]in a freak accident fire
[01:22.76]In her yard in Bruster her daughter
[01:25.60]came home from a party and found her
[01:30.13]Same way as my uncle who was her grandfather
[01:37.61]An aerosol can blew up in the trash, goddamn,
[01:41.69]what were the odds?
[01:44.69]She was just getting ready to
[01:47.39]go to her midnight shift as an RN is Rosworth
[01:50.87]And she vanished up in flames like that
[01:55.52]but there had to be more to her life's worth
[01:59.86]Everyone's grieving out of their minds,
[02:03.44]making arrangements and taking drugs
[02:06.68]But I'm flying out there tomorrow
[02:09.22]because I need to give and get some hugs
[02:14.01]Cause I got questions
[02:17.78]that I'd like to get answered
[02:21.08]I may never get them,
[02:23.57]but Carissa gotta know how did it happen
[02:29.45]Carissa was thirty-five,
[02:32.58]you don't just raise two kids
[02:35.02]and take out your trash and die
[02:40.36]She was my second cousin,
[02:43.55]I didn't know her well at all but it don't mean that
[02:47.22]I wasn't meant to find some poetry
[02:53.81]to make some sense of this,
[02:56.35]to find a deeper meaning
[03:01.48]In a senseless tragedy,
[03:05.61]oh Carissa I'll sing your name across every sea
[03:42.28]Were you doing someone else's chores for them?
[03:49.35]Were you just killing time,
[03:51.88]finding things to do all by your lonesome?
[03:56.57]Was it even you
[03:58.36]who mistakenly put flammables in the trash
[04:03.94]Was it your kids just being kids,
[04:06.77]and so, oh, the guilt they will carry around forever
[04:11.76]Well I'm going out there to get a look at the landscapes,
[04:18.63]To get a look at those I'm connected by blood and see
[04:23.66]how it all may have shaped me
[04:26.35]Well I'm going out there though I'm not really needed
[04:33.28]I'm just so broken up about it,
[04:36.56]how is it that this sad history repeated?
[04:41.05]I'll return to Ohio, to the place I was born
[04:48.08]Gonna see where I hung with my cousins
[04:51.41]and played with them in the snow
[04:54.75]Fist in their palms,
[04:56.30]gonna see how they've grown
[04:59.04]Visit some greats and say hey I've missed you
[05:02.83]Gonna find out as much as I can
[05:06.06]about my little second cousin Carissa
[05:11.20]Gonna go to Ohio, where I was born
[05:17.68]Got a 10:45 AM flight, I'm leaving tomorrow morning
[05:24.69]Gonna see my aunts and my uncles,
[05:28.73]my parents and sisters
[05:32.07]Mostly I'm going to pay my respects
[05:35.55]to my little second cousin Carissa
[05:40.99]Going to Ohio where I feel I belong
[05:46.56]Ask those who know the most about Carissa
[05:50.40]for it was her life and death that I'm helplessly drawn.
[05:55.68]Carissa was thirty-five, raised kids
[05:59.40]since she was fifteen years old and suddenly died
[06:05.78]Next to an old river, fire pit,
[06:09.33]oh there's gotta be more than that to it
[06:17.09]She was only my second cousin but
[06:21.17]it don't mean that I'm not here for her or that
[06:24.52]I wasn't meant to give her life poetry,
[06:31.73]make sure her name is known across every city