Ode to billy joe

Papa said to mama
as he passed the black-eyed peas,
"Oh, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense,
pass the buiscuts please.
There's five more acres in the lower forty
I gotta plow."
And mama said it was shame
about Billy Joe anyhow.
Seems like nothing ever comes to any good
up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now Billy Joe McAllister's
jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Then brother said he recollected
when him and Tom and Billy Joe.
Put a frog down my back
at the Carol 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
on 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 appitite?
I've been cooking all morning
and you havn't touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor,
dropped by today.
Said he'd be pleased to have dinner
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."