It was the third of June another sleepy dusty Delta day

I was out choppin' cotton and my brother was a bailin' hay

At dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat

And mama hollered at the backdoor y'all remember to wipe your feet

She said I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Wridge

Today Billie Joe Macallister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge



Papa said to mama as she passed around the black eyed peas

Billie 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 a shame about Billie Joe anyhow

It seems like nothing ever comes to no good upon Choctaw Wridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge



Brother said he recollected when he and Tom and Billie Joe

Put a frog down my back at the Caroll County picture show

And wasn't I talkin' 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 upon Choctaw Wridge

And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge



Mama said to me child what's happened to your apetite

I've been cookin' all mornin' and you haven't touched a single bite

That nice young preacher brother Tailor dropped by today

Said he'd be pleased to have dinner on Sunday oh by the way

He said he saw a girl that's looked a lot like you upon Choctaw Wridge

And she and Billie Joe was throwin' somethin' off the Tallahatchie Bridge



One year has come and gone since we heard the news about Billie Joe

Brother married Becky Thompson and they bought a store in Tupelo

There was a virus goin' round and papa caught it and he died last spring

Now mama doesn't seem to want to do much of anything

And me I spent a lot of time pickin' flowers upon Choctaw Wridge

And dropped 'em down into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge