Gentle on My Mind

It's knowing that the door is always open
And that I'm 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 ink stains that have dried upon some line

That keeps you in the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

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 walking
It's knowing that the world
Would not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along that railroad track and find

That you're moving through the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
And for hours you just gentle on my mind

And the wheat fields and the clothes lines
And the junkyards and the highways come between us
Some other woman crying to her mother
'Cause she turned and I was gone
Well, I still 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 through the back roads
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 rusting coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face
Through cupped hands 'round a tin can
I draw you gently to my breast and find

That you're walking through the back roads
By the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind

On my mind