It was the third of June
Another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out chopping cotton
And my brother was bailing hay
And at 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
And then she said
I got some news this morning from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
And Papa said to Mama
As he pa**ed around the black-eyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense
Pa** the biscuits, please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
And Mama said it was shame about Billy Joe
Anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes
To no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy 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 talking 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
And Mama said to me
Child, what's happened to your appetite?
I've been cooking 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 Billy Joe was throwing something 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 doesn't seem to wanna do much of anything
And me
I spend a lot of time
Picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge