Ode To Bilie Joe

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 at the back door

You'll remember to wipe your feet

And then she said I got some news this morning

From chocta ridge

Today

Billy joe mcallister jumped off the tallahatchie bridge

And papa said to mama

As he passed around the black eyed peas

Oh billy joe never had a lick of sense

Pass the biscuits please

There's five more acres

In the lower forty I've got to plow

Mama said it was a shame about billy joe anyhow

Seems like nothing ever comes to no good

Up on chocta ridge

And now billy joe macalisters

Jumped off the tallahatchie bridge

Brother said he recollected when he and tom

And billy joe

Put a frog down my back at the carroll county

Picture show

Was the night 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 chocta ridge

And now you tell me

Billy joe's jumped off the tallahatchie bridge

And mama said to me child

Whats happened to your appetite

Well 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 chocta ridge

And she and billy joe was throwing something

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 want

To do much of anything

And me I spend a lot of time

Pickin' flowers up on chocta ridge

And droppin' 'em into the muddy water

Off the tallahatchie bridge