Its knowing that your door is always open and your path is free to walk

That makes me tend to leave my sleeping bag rolled up and stashed behind your couch

And its knowing Im not shacked by forgotten words and bonds

And the ink stains that have dried upon some line

That keeps you in the back roads by the rivers of my memory

That keeps you ever gentle on my mind



Its not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns now that binds me

Or somethin that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking

Its just knowin that the world will not be cursing or forgiving

When I walk along some railroad track and find

That youre movin on the back roads by the rivers of my memory

And for hours youre just gentle on my mind



Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines

And the junkyards and the highways come between us

And some other woman cryin to her mother cause she turned and I was gone

I still might run in silence tears of joy might stain my face

And a summer sun might burn me till Im blind

But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back roads

By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind



I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin cracklin cauldron in some train yard

My beard a roughen coal pile and a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands round a tin can I pretend I hold you to my breast and find

That youre waving from the back roads by the rivers of my memory

Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind