Ode to Billy Joe

It was the 3rd of June

Another sleepy, dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was a-bailin' hay

'Bout dinner time, we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And Mama hollered out the back door, y'all remember to wipe your feet

She said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Papa said to Mama as she passed around the black-eyed peas

Billie Joe never had a lick of sense

Pass the biscuits please

There's five more acres in the lower forty I got to plow

And Mama said it was a shame about Billie Joe, anyhow

Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show

Hey, wasn't I talkin' to him after church last Sunday night?

I'll have another piece of apple pie

You know it don't seem right

I saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Mama said to me, child, what's happened to your appetite?

I've been cookin' all morning and you haven't touched a single bite

That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday

Oh, by the way

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge

And she and Billie Joe was throwing somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Well, now a year has come and gone

Since we heard the news about Billie Joe

Brother married Becky Thompson

And they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus goin' round

And Papa caught it

He died last spring

Now Mama just sits around

She don't wanna do much of anything

And me, I spend a lot of time

Pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge

And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge