It’s knowing that your

Door is always open

And your path is free to walk

That makes me tend to keep

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 up on some line

That keeps you in 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 bind me

Or something that somebody said

Because they thought we’d

Fit together walking

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 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

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 ‘til 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 so rough and a coal pile

And a dirty hat pulled

Low across my face

With cupped hands around A tin can

I pretend to hold you

To my breast and find

That you’re waving' from the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind