Ode To Billie Joe

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin cotton and my brother was balin hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door 'yall remember to wipe your feet'
And then she said 'I got some news this mornin from Choctaw Ridge'
'Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge'

And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
'Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please'
'Theres five more acres in the lower forty Ive got to plow'
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllisters jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

And Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasnt I talkin to him after church last Sunday night?
'Ill have another piece of apple pie, you know it dont seem right'
'I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge'
'And now you tell me Billie Joes jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge'

And Mama said to me 'Child, whats happened to your appetite?'
'Ive been cookin all morning and you havent touched a single bite'
'That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today'
'Said hed 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 Billy Joe was throwing somethin off the Tallahatchie Bridge'
A year has come n gone since we heard the news bout Billy Joe

And Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going round, Papa caught it and he died last Spring
And now Mama doesnt seem to 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