It was the
3rd of June another sleepy dusty delta day
I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was bailin’ hay.
At dinner time we stopped off on down to the house to eat
and mama hollered out the backdoor y’all remember to wipe your feet.
She said I heard bit of news this mornin’ from
Choctaw Ridge
seems that Billy Joe macallister’s jumped off the Rallahatchee bridge.
Well papa said to mama as he passed around the black eyed peas
billy joe never had a lick
of sense, pass the biscuits please
there’s 5 more acres in the lower 40 I got to plow
mama said was a shame about billy joe
anyhow
seems that nothin’ never comes to no good up on choctaw ridge and now you
tell me billy joe has
jumped off the tallahatchee bridge.
Brother recollected when he and tom and billy joe
put a frog down my back at the carol couty picture
show
and wasn’t I talkin’ to him after church last sunday night
I’ll have another piece of apple pie but oh it dont
seem right
saw him at the sawmill yesterday up on choctaw ridge
and now you tell me billy joe
has jumped off the tallahatchee bridge
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 have dinner on sunday,
oh by the way
said he saw a girl who looked alot like you up on choctaw ridge
and she and billy joe was throwin’ something off the tallahatchee
bridge.
a year’s come and gone since we heard the news about billy
joe
brother married becky thompson
and they bought a store in tupelo
was a virus goin round and papa caught and he died
last spring
now mama doesn’t seem to wanto do much of anything
me I spend a lot of my time pickin flowers up on choctaw ridge
and throw ‘em into the muddy water off the tallahatchee bridge.
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