| It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day. |
| I was out chopping cotton, and my brother was baling hay. |
| And at dinner time, we stopped and walked back to the house to eat, |
| And Mama hollered at 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 McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge." |
| |
| Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas, |
| "Well, 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." |
| And Mama said, "Itt was a shame about Billy Joe, anyhow. |
| It seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge, |
| And now, Billy Joe McAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge." |
| |
| And brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billy 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 at Choctaw Ridge, |
| And now you tell me Billy Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge?" |
| |
| Mama said to me, "Child, what's happened to your appetite? |
| Why, 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 who 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 and gone since we heard the news about Billy Joe. |
| Brother Mary, Becky Thomson 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 picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge, |
| And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge. |
