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 bonds and the ink stains that are dried upon some line

That keeps you on the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

And 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

Would not be cursing or forgiving

When I walk along some railroad 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 lines

And the junk yards 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 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

Well I dip my cup of soup back from a gurgling, bubbling cauldron

In some train yard

My beard a roughening coal pile

And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands around a 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