Ode to Billie Joe

It was the third of June

Another sleepy dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton

And my brother was bailin' hay.

And at dinner time we stopped

And walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered out the backdoor

Y'all remember to wipe your feet.

And then she said I got the news

This mornin' from Choctaw Ridge

Today Billie Joe Macallister's

Jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Papa said to mama as he

Passed around the black eyed peas

Well, Billie Joe never had a lick of sense

Pass the biscuits if you 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 nothing ever comes

To no good upon Choctaw Ridge

And now Billie Joe Macallister'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.

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

Up on Choctaw Ridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe

Has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Mama said to me child

What's happened to your apetite

Well, I've been cookin' all mornin'

And you haven't touched a single bite.

That nice young preacher

Brother Tailor 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 upon Choctaw Ridge

She and Billie Joe was throwin'

Somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

One 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 virus goin' round

Papa caught it and he died last spring

And now mama doesn't seem to want

To do much of anything.

And me, I spent a lot of time

Pickin' flowers upon Chotaw Ridge

And dropped 'em into the

Muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge...