Gentle On My Mind

It's knowin' 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 upon some line
That keeps you in the back roads, by the rivers of my mem'ry
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy planted on the columns now that binds me
Or somethin' that somebody said because they thought we fit together walkin'
It's just knowin' that the world will not be cursin' or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' on the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
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 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 'til I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the back roads
By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind

I dipped my cup of soup back from the gurglin' cracklin' 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 I hold you to my breast and find
That you're wavin' from the back roads by the rivers of my mem'ry
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind