GENTLE ON MY MIND

It's knowin' that your door is always open

And your path is free to walk.

That makes me tend to leave my sleepin' bag

Rolled up and stashed behind your couch.

And it's knowin' I'm not shackled

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 mem’ry

It keeps you ever gentle on my mind.

 

It's not clingin' to the rocks and ivy

Planted on the columns now that bind us.

Or something that somebody said because

They thought we fit together walkin'.

It's just knowing that the world

Will not be cursing or forgiving

When I drift in through the marketplace and find

That you're movin' on the back roads

By the rivers of my mem’ry

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's 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 the summer sun might burn me till I'm blind.

But not to where I cannot see you walkin' on the back roads

By the rivers flowin' gentle on my mind.

 

The shutters creak and autumn winds

That make me draw inside myself in silence.

Cross-legged now I sit and watch

The endless chase of leaves across the ground.

I close my eyes and see you there

And then to hold you to my breast and find

That you're movin’ on the back roads

By the rivers of my mem’ry

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind.

 

That you're movin’ on the back roads

By the rivers of my mem’ry

Ever smilin', ever gentle on my mind.