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
And it's knowing i'm not shacked 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 memory
That keeps you ever gentle on my mind

It's not clinging to the rocks and ivy planted on their columns now that binds me
Or somethin' that somebody said because they thought we fit together walking
It's just knowin' that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When i walk along some railroad track and find
That you're movin' 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 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 till i'm blind
But not to where i cannot see you walking on the back roads
By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back from a gurglin' cracklin' cauldron in some train yard
My beard a roughen 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 waving from the back roads by the rivers of my memory
Ever smiling ever gentle on my mind