Gentle on My Mind

It's knowing that the door is always open

And that I'm 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 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

Not clinging to the rocks and ivy

Planted on their columns, now that binds me

Or something that somebody said

Because they thought we fit together walking

It's knowing that the world

Would not be cursing or forgiving

When I walk along that railroad track and find

That you're moving through the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

And for hours you just gentle on my mind

And the wheat fields and the clothes lines

And the junkyards and the highways come between us

Some other woman crying to her mother

'Cause she turned and I was gone

Well, I still 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 through the back roads

By the rivers flowing gentle on my mind

I dip my cup of soup back

From the gurgling crackling cauldron in some train yard

My beard a rusting coal pile

And a dirty hat pulled low across my face

Through cupped hands 'round a tin can

I draw you gently to my breast and find

That you're walking through the back roads

By the rivers of my memory

Ever smiling, ever gentle on my mind

On my mind