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