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I had a true love from Hannibal |
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Where the Mississippi turns flat and wide |
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We'd lay out on the sandbars |
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And fall asleep to the barges and the fireflies |
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And I killed my true love from Hannibal |
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She was nineteen and I was twenty-two |
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Summer was ending and she was leaving soon |
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To study writing on the east coast |
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And I worked in my father's shop |
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Fixing air conditioners and heating pumps |
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Going to college never made much sense to me |
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I wanted to keep my true love close to me |
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The summers are hot in Hannibal |
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The summers there are unbearable |
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So we'd steal down to the water's edge |
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And cool off in the river's ebb |
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One night we decided what we would do |
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Swim to the middle 'til our strength gave out |
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Where the current was strong and deep |
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Together we'd be pulled down to sleep |
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So we swam 'til our bodies were weak |
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I watched my true love get washed out to sea |
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I felt a terrible grip from beneath |
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The river took her but it didn't take me |
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In St. Louis there's a prison cell |
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It'll be twelve more years 'til I get out |
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When I do her father says |
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He'll shoot me down if I don't do it myself |
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Most days I just try and sleep |
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I dream of Hannibal when it was in between |
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It's not quite day and it's not yet night |
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We fall asleep to the barges and the fireflies |
