Ode To Billie Joe

Was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
 I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was balin' hay
 And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
 And Mama hollered out the back door y'all remember to wipe your feet
 And then she said I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
 Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
 And Papa said to Mama as he passed around the blackeyed peas
 Well, 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 shame about Billie Joe, anyhow
 Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
 And now Billie Joe MacAllister's 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 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 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 mornin' 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
 
 A year has come and gone since we heard the news 'bout Billie Joe
 And brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo
 There was a virus goin' 'round, Papa caught it and he died last spring
 And now mama doesn't 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