It was the third of June
another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton
and my brother was baling hay
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
Then she said I got some news
this morning from Chocktow Ridge
Today Billy Joe MacAllister
jumped off the Tallahachee Bridge
Papa said to Mama
as he passed around the blackCeyed peas
Well Billy 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 Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothing ever comes
to no good on Chocktow Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's
jumped off the Tallahachee 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-a apple pie
you know it don't seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday
on Choctaw Ridge
And now ya 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 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 Billy Joe was throwing
somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge
A year has come and 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
pickin' flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into
the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge