Let's 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 it's knowing I'm not shackled
by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains
that have dried up on some line
That keeps you in the back roads
by the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind.
It's not clinging to the rocks
and ivy planted on their columns now
that binds me
Or something that somebody said
because they thought we fit together walking
It's just knowing that the world
will not be cursing or forgiving
when I walk along
some railroad track fine
That you're moving on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory and for hours
You're just gentle on my mind
Though the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junk yards and the highways come between us
And some other woman's 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 the summer sun might burn me 'till I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you
Walking in the back roads
By the rivers flowing gently on my mind
I dip my cup of soup from a gurgling,
cracking cauldron in some train yard
My beard a roughening coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands around the tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're wavin' from the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind
gentle on my mind
you are gentle on my mind
woo woo woo yeah |