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 bars
And the ink stains that have dried upon some lines
That keeps you on the back roads my the rivers of my memories
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on the columns
Now that binds me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking

It's just knowing that the world will not be cursed or forgiven
When I walk along some railway 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 line
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 'til I'm blind
But not to where I cannot see you walking on the back roads
By the rivers slowing gentle on my mind

Well, I dip my cup of soup back
From a gurgling bubbling cauldron in some train yard
My beard rough and the coal pile
And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through curtail driving tin can
I pretend to hold you to my breast and find
That you're waving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind