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 I'd be planted

On their columns now that binds me

Or something that somebody said

Because they thought we fit together walkin'



It's just knowing that the world will not be cursin' or forgivin'

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



I dipped my cup of soap back from

A gurglin' cracklin' caltron 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 to hold you to my breast and find

That you're waving from the back roads

By the river of my memories

Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind



That you're waving from the back roads

By the river of my memories

Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind