Sun Kil Moon – Carissa (Guitar)

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Oh Carissa, when I first saw you, you were a lovely child

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And the last time I saw you, you were fifteen and pregnant and running wild

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I remember wondering, could there be a light at the end of your tunnel?

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But I left Ohio then and pretty much forgotten all about you

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I guess you were there some years ago at a family funeral

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But you were one of so many relatives I didn't know which one was you

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Yesterday morning I woke up to so many 330 area code calls

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I called my mom back and she was in tears and asked had I spoke to my father

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Carissa burned to death last night in a freak accident fire

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In her yard in Bruster her daughter came home from a party and found her

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Same way as my uncle who was her grandfather

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An aerosol can blew up in the trash, goddamn, what were the odds?

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She was just getting ready to go to her midnight shift as an RN in Wadsworth

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And she vanished up in flames like that but there had to be more to her life's worth

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Everyone's grieving out of their minds, making arrangements and taking drugs

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But I'm flying out there tomorrow because I need to give and get some hugs

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Cause I got questions that I'd like to get answered

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I may never get them, but Carissa gotta know how did it happen

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Carissa was 35, you don't just raise two kids and take out your trash and die

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She was my second cousin, I didn't know her well at all but it doesn't mean that I wasn't

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Meant to find some poetry to make some sense of this, to find a deeper meaning

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In a senseless tragedy, oh Carissa I'll sing your name across every sea

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Were you doing someone else's chores for them?

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Were you just killing time, finding things to do all by your lonesome?

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Was it even you mistakenly put flammables in the trash

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Was it your kids just being kids, and so, oh, the guilt they will carry around forever

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Well I'm going out there to get a look at the landscapes

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To get a look at those I'm connected by blood and see how it all may have shaped me

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Well I'm going out there though I'm not really needed

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I'm just so broken up about it, how is it that this sad history repeated?

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I'll return to Ohio,(I'll return to Ohio) to the place I was born (to the place I was born)

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Gonna see where I hung with my cousins and played with them in the snow (Fist in their palms)

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Gonna see how they've grown, Visit some graves and say hey I've missed you

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Gonna find out as much as I can about my little second cousin Carissa

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Gonna go to Ohio, where I was born

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Got a 10: 45 am flight, I'm leaving tomorrow morning

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Gonna see my aunts and my uncles, my parents and sisters

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Mostly I'm going to pay my respects to my little second cousin Carissa

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Going to Ohio where I feel I belong

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Ask those who know the most about Carissa for it is her life and death that I'm helplessly drawn

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Carissa was thirty-five, raised kids since she was fifteen years old and suddenly died

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Next to an old river, fire pit, oh there's gotta be more than that to it

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She was only my second cousin but it don't mean that I'm not here for her or that I wasn't

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Meant to give her life poetry, make sure her name is known across every city