Lyrics

It's knowing that your door is always open And your path is free to walk That makes me tend to leave my sleeping back Rolled up and stashed behind your couch And It's knowing I'm not shackled By forgotten words and bonds Or the ink stains that have dried upon some line That keeps you in the backroads 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 bind me Or something that somebody said 'Cause they thought we fit together walking It's just knowing that the world Will not be cursing or forgiving And I walk along some railroad track and find That you moving in the backroads by the rivers of my memory And for always you're just gentle on my mind [Instrumental] Through the wheat fields and the clotheslines 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 the summer sun might burn me 'til I'm blind But not to where I cannot see you walking on the backroads By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind I dip my cup of soup back from the gurgling Crackling cauldron in some train yard My beard a roughenin', coal pile And a dirty hat, pulled low across my face Through cupped hands around the tin cans I pretend to hold you to my breast and find That you're waving from the backroads By the rivers of my memory Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind