Gentle on My Mind

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.

It's knowing I'm not shackled
By forgotten words and bonds
And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines
That keeps you on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And 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 walkin'.

It's just knowing that the world
Will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're waiting on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
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,

Well 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 walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind.

Well I dip my cup of soup back
From a gurglin' bubblin' cauldron in some train yard
My beard a-roughenin' coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands round a tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waitin' on the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind.