It'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 knowin' I'm not shackled
by forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains
that are dried upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads
by the rivers of my memory
It keeps you ever gentle on my mind
It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together,
walk in
It's just knowing that
the world will not be
Cursing or forgiving
when I walk along
From some railroad track and find
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 junkyards and the highways
Come between us
And some other woman's crying
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 I'm 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 roughnin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pull over
across my face
Through cupped hands round the tin can
I pretend to hold you
to my breast and find
That you're waitin' from
the back roads
By the rivers of my memories
Ever smiling,
ever gentle on my mind