It was a third of June Another sleepy dust Delta day I was out hocppin' 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 "Yo, remember to wipe your feet" And then she said "I got some news this mornin' from Calk Toridge. Today Billy Joe Machalas jumped off from Talahatchy bridge."
Papa said to Mama as he passed around the black-eyed peas "Well Billy Joe never had lick a sense, Pass the biscuits, please. There's 5 more acres in the lower 40 I got to plow." And Mama said "It was a shame about Billie Joe anyhow" Seems like nothing ever comes to no good up on Chalk Toridge And now Billy Joe Machalas jumped off from Talahatchy bridge
Brother said the recollected when he and Tom and Billy Joe Put a frog down my back At the Cattle Country 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 ringht. I saw him at the saw mill yesterday on Chalk Toridge. And now you tell me Billie Joe's jumped off From Talahatchy bridge."
Mama said to me "Child, what's happend to your appetite? 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 looked a lot like you up On Chalk Toridge. And she and Billy Joe was throwin' something Off the Talahatchy bridge."
A year has come and gone Since we heard the news about Billy Joe Brother married Becky Thompson They brought a store In Toppellow
There was a virus goin' around Papa caught it and he died last spring And now Mama doesn't seem to want to do much a anything And me I spend a lot of time picking flowers up On Chalk Tridge And drop them into the muddy water off the Talahatchy bridge
